©, or INSIDE: EVERY XBOX GAME REVIEWED AND RATED
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‚NATION INDEPENDENT XBOX MAGAZINE
| WORLD EXCLUSIVE HANDS-ON PREVIEW | EXCLUSIVE HANDS-ON PREVIEW
We've played it: Sega’s breathtaking Panzer Dragoon
Orta revealed for the first time-only in XBN
METAL GEAR SOLID On X
At last: Konami confirms Solid Snake is sneaking over to Xbox
OnLine: UNREAL CHAMPIONSHIP
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PLUS: 10 world-class game designers speak out on the future of broadband
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First hands-on with Тһе best game you've PLUS: Tecmo reveals
Sega's funk-fest. p46 never heard of. p62 Ninja Gaiden . p10
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onc of 4 unique Hunters, or battle evil cooperatively at once using 20 melee, ranged and spell weapons— through 23 huge environments, including a prison.
with up to 4 players on a single screen. from swords to axes and flamethrowers. gothic church, cemetery and torture chamber, 2
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frei White Wolf Publishing, Inc Hunter The Reckoning is a registered trademark of White Wolf Publishing, Wc. Interplay, the Anterplay logo, "By Gamers. For Gamers ”, Digital Mayhem and the Digital Мауна logo are trademarks of Interplay Entertainment Corp.-Mierosof Xbox amd. the.
581717 re either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the WS, and/or ın other countnes and are used Wider license from Microsoft. The ratings ¡comas а repistered trademark of the Interactive Digital Software Association. AIF othel-eopyrights and E
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for Rating Information
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TERMINNTOR
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IT'S ALWAYS DARKEST BEFORE THE DAWN. WWW.TERMINATORGAME.COM
The Terminator: Dawn Of Fate, © 2002 Infogrames, Inc., a subsidiary of Infogrames Entertainment, S.A. All rights reserved. Developed by Paradigm Entertainment. Manufactured and marketed by Infogrames,
Inc., New York, NY. The Terminator ТМ & © 1984 StudioCanal Image S.A., (/к/а Canal+ D.A. All rights reserved. Terminator is a trademark of StudioCanal Image S.A., f/k/a Canal+ D.A. "PlayStation" and the
“PS” Family logo are registered trademarks of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. Microsoft, Xbox and the Xbox logos are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the U.S. and/or
other countries and are used under license from Microsoft. The ratings icon is a trademark of the Interactive Digital Software Association. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
System shocks
When the Dreamcast is
outselling you (as it is in
Japan) then you know you're
in trouble. Xbox has failed at launch
in Japan, in Germany, in France, in
the UK and quite possibly in some
other countries that nobody ever
bothers to ask about (Anyone know
the sales numbers for Sweden?). A
recent Euro price drop will no doubt
help, but without big new games,it's
going to be an uphill struggle. Xbox
sales in the United States һауе Бееп
much better, of course, but are also
showing signs of slowing to a crawl.
Oh dear.
Microsoft has entered what is
surely the most vicious console war
that anyone, including the rather
more “seasoned” guys at the PC mag
across the XBN office can remember.
And it's getting bloody.
But by the time you read this, the
2002 E3 show will have come and
gone. As we report on page 10, we
expect the cavalry to arrive in the
form of a Metal Gear Solid title,
Sega’s exclusive Xbox shooter,
Panzer Dragoon Orta (which we have
the world’s first playtest of on page
34) and perhaps even a Virtua Fighter
4 一 not to mention the return of a
beloved classic іп the form of
Tecmo's Ninja Gaiden update. And
opening up a whole new front in the
war is Xbox Live; Microsoft's
broadband gaming service—which
could yet emerge as a compelling
enough reason for people to buy in to
the dream.
Simon Cox
Editor-in-chief
LO XPRESS
010
018
022
028
Now and Next
Metal Gear Solid X
Konami drops a bombshell
Marvelous Activision
X-Men and Blade, oh my!
Opening the Xbox
XBN gets its literary on
Gear
X-tra special goodies
MY FUTURE
EB Coming Soon to Xbox
034
042
046
052
056
058
060
062
066
Panzer Dragoon Orta
Sega brings an old classic to the Xbox
Hitman 2
Bang, you're dead. Part 2.
ToeJam and Earl III
The strangers in a strange land return
XIII
Cel-shaded FPS. Ya knew it was coming
Sega GT
Sega Japan opens its doors for XBN
House of the Dead 3
AKA: Shooting Lots of Zombies
Terminator: Dawn of Fate
Sounds epic, doesn't it?
Y-Project
Sequel to the oft-forgotten X-project
Broken Sword
An epic adventure goes fully 3D
>
080
082
084
086
088
090
090
091
091
091
091
092
092
092
092
093
093
093
093
094
XRATED
Smart Reviews
Hunter: The Reckoning
Spider-Man
World Series Baseball
Blood Omen Il
Rallisport Challenge
All-Star Baseball 2003
ESPN NBA 2Night
Spy Hunter
Pirates
Crash Bandicoot
Smashing Drive
2002 FIFA World Cup
ESPN MLS Extreme 2002
Blitz 20-02
Knockout Kings
James Bond
Gauntlet: Dark Legacy
Burnout
Moto GP
Rewind
XTRA
Out of the Box
106 Spin
XBN CD and DVD selections
108 Inbox
Your mail goes here. So does ours
© INTERVIEW
024
098
102
104
Free Speech
Hiroshi Inukai
Speaks out on small living rooms
The Ego Has Landed
Peter Molyneux talks a big game
Tenacious D
What is the secret of their powers?
Jason Giambi
...has been in the same room as an Xbox
XBN PEOPLE
Contributors
"m
гд
< 008 xBN
Simon Cox
Editor-in-chief
Drafted by Upper Grumpton as a
scrummer, young British lad Simon
Cox quickly learned the phrase, “Oh
dear Lord, not the face!” Shortly after
doodling a record 34 wickets against
Westumptonshire, Cox fled Europe to
mold а raggedy Бапа of miscreants
and sheep scrapers into a hardened
team of miscreants and sheep scrap-
ers who write about video games.
Yes, and he's also the top dog, el
numero uno queso, and all that good
stuff at Xbox Nation.
Evan Shamoon
Rapscallion
Dime-store Nietzsche Evan
Shamoon reminds us all that it’s
not who you know, but who knows
you've got salmon in your
trousers. A bully editor and a
shining example for all those
under the sun who’ve ever
dreamed of parlaying a love of
flatulent humor into a low-paying,
dead-end gig, young Shamoon
also comes possessed of a
lemony-fresh scent.
Carlo Bacor
Photographer
It's pure coincidence that the
photos "Crusher' Carlo takes can
also function as deadly
projectiles—and were recently
found stuck in the back of some
stoolie who snitched to the man
about Metal Gear Solid X.
Annie Lipscomb
Photographer
Precious wag Lipscomb makes
her way through this world
blowing a ten-penny whistle and
taking photographs of German
men with designs on making
Xbox games with giant insects in
them. She's keen, y'dig?
Jeremy Sarmiento
Intern
Though the 13th Amendment to
the United States Constitution
officially prohibits slavery, it says
nothing about internships. Таке
that, Uncle Sam!
Jason Brookes
Freelance writer
Soaring on dragons' wings,
plucky Brit Brookes (or
“Brooksie” as mum calls him)
was a decent enough chap to
cover Panzer Dragoon Orta and
about a bazillion Sega games for
this here publication.
Jeff Lundrigan
Freelance Writer
"Yodelin'" Jeff Lundrigan comes
to Xbox Nation straight from the
радев of Next Generation апа а
certain other Xbox-related
magazine that we suspect is only
read by the parents of the people
who make it, and by penal colony
workers who misbehave.
Matt Sammons
Freelance Writer
А castaway from the Web site
Daily Radar, Matt Sammons
found a brand-new life in sunny
Los Angeles for two whole days
before being evicted. Once part
of premier exercise team “Team
Ripped Force," Sammons is now
searching for a comfortable box
and а һарру song to sing.
David Ziganay
Art Direction
Wherever there is cheese and, to a
lesser extent, “Cheez,” Dave will be
there. Whenever people cry out in the
night, they have been dreaming of
Dave and his Medusa-like coiffure.
Dave is the clouds in our coffee and
the wind beneath our wings—he is
the ever shining sun, the unceasing
tide, the prevailing Westerly. He
makes us all look good, which rightly
should have been one of the 12
labors of Hercules.
Greg Orlando
Herald Of The Obvious
Greg Orlando hates you all in life.
Dan DiGiacomo
Freelance writer
Since we're so sure you already
know what a talented writer
Daniel “Dandy Dan” DiGiacomo
is, we thought we'd use this
space to recommend
Scientology. We don't know
anything about this pseudo-
religion, but we figure that if you
join up, we'll likely get some sort
of kickback.
Jeff Pearlman
Freelance Writer
Banjo-strumming, mud-puddle
prophet Jeff Pearlman covers
baseball for some obscure
magazine called Sports
Illustrated. You may remember
Pearlman as the guy that pitcher
John Rocker once attempted to
kill and, we think, eat.
Andre Sibayan
Illustrator
When the planets align, and all is
truly well with the world,
everything will look as if Andre
drew it.
Ч SPORTS
SPORTS Ч
i s dos e x "
we CALL IT SLUGFEST FOR A REASON.
COMING SOON.
GAME PREVIEW AT WWW.SLUGFEST.MIDWAY.COM
Visit www.esrb.org or
X
call 1-800-771-3772 .
for Rating Information. PlayS tation.
NINTENDO хеох
GAMECUBE.
XPRESS.
Now and Next
אמא 010 $
L^ XPRESS
Now and Next
| ₪
Konami and Tecmo to announ
for Xbox; Sega waffles
Triple-A titles
The worst-kept secret in video games refused to comment on specifics for either game,
history is no longer a secret at all. but did reveal general details about each. The
Konami, maker of Metal Gear Solid for much-anticipated Gaiden, according to Team
the PlayStation and its PlayStation 2 sequel Ninja, will feature “absolutely awesome, intense
Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty, will action scenes" and the game will be rendered
announce a Metal Gear Solid game for the Xbox completely in 3D. Ninja representatives stated
lay's big Electronic Entertainment Expo repeatedly that Gaiden will feature graphics that
are superior to those seen in Dead or Alive 3 and
that it will hold puzzle-solving elements as well as
a few items plucked directly from the classic side-
scrolling Ninja Gaiden series.
Tecmo’s second Xbox offering Xtreme Beach
etal Volleyball will be set amid the Dead or Alive
comes after a year of rampant speculation, iverse. After winning a ton of money in Las
rsistent Tumors, and repeated denials on the Vegas, the game's plot goes, the brawler Zack
purchases his own island. He then invites
in, by which it is meant all the female
ers and none of the male ones, Dead or Alive
eroes to compete іп no-holds barred volleyball
matches. Little else is known about the game,
save for the fact that it will contain at least one
new character, and that it may hold some type of
online component.
Quite possibly, when Beach Volleyball arrives in
the United States, it will do so carrying a mature
_ rating from the ESRB. Team Ninja has stated
publicly that it believes an older audience will be
better able to appreciate the full contents of this
_ game. "It'll Бе an extremely arousing experience,”
the developers said about Beach Volleyball. “The
fans will truly get a kick out of it.”
_ With Microsoft holding its cards close to the
ен о Өр not praparod ao EOP any
shells, Tecmo and Konami's
nouncements come as а breath of fresh air. It
s to be seen if this years ЕЗ show will be
ation has learned that
Gaiden as well as the bizarre sports title
Alive: Xtreme Beach Volleyball for the Xbox. announcement of these games can only be
Team Ninja, the developer for both titles, construed as in the right direction.
N | a | | 7 TAR XBN 011 >
Ө XPRESS
Now and Next
Prisoner of War
“Nazis, | hate those guys
GOOD COP, BAD COP
Mmmm...donuts.
012 хвм
THE MANIA IS ABOUT 10 BEGIN ALL OVER AGA
42 of wrestling’s greatest including: Hulk Dominate your foes with the First-ever interactive 6 & 8 man Multi-Player
Hogan, Bret “Hitman” Hart, Jerry “The King” all-new ISP system for lethal wrestler entrances Elimination Bouts and
Lawler, Rob Van Dam and many more! one-button combos! with announcer introductions! graphic wrestling realism!
О ЖК ججح
х Ё IT f 7 4 Б 2 4
Sy » р Ё x Р: &
Y ` ” 5 C - : жж x Ж”.
сэх Эссэ ВЕ л. Жыл, + 4 A ہے а МЕ АРҒЫН Ec PT р PEUT Ха e ME к РА сс РЕ Ху, л х ЕР РРР
King Kong Bundy, Ricky “The Dragon" Steamboat, Ted DiBiase, "Superstar" Billy Graham, Mr. Fuji, Captain Lou Albano, Tito Santana, The Sheik, Ivan Koloff
wen X AXlaim
TEEN
Violence -
SEITE XBox www.acclaim.com
Legends of Wrestling™ and Acclaim® & © 2002 Acclaim Entertainment, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Developed by Acclaim Studios Salt Lake City. All Rights Reserved. Microsoft, Xbox and the Xbox Logos are either registered
trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the U.S. and/or in other countries and are used under license from Microsoft.
ФЭ XPRESS
Now апа Мехі
ПТН ПЕШ5
All the news you Need To Know
$ 014 хвм
ФЭ XPRESS
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XBN 015 9
ФЭ XPRESS
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XBN 017 Y
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Freaky Flyers
Into the wildest blue yonder...
Feed
$ 018 хвм
HE WAS UNDEFEATED.
HOW WILL YOU CARRY ON HIS LEGACY?
BRUCE LEE
QUEST OF THE DRAGON
| Жхеох
| а
(BRUCE LEE |
| QUEST OF THE DRAGON
For the first time ever, you can fight as the one and only Bruce Lee. In Quest of the Dragon, motion
capture technology authentically recreates more than one hundred of Bruce’s Jeet Kune Do
moves. Designed exclusively for Xbox, it’s an action-packed fighting game where you'll
battle hordes of thugs in an epic struggle for survival. Get ready for a fight of legendary proportion.
Suggestive Themes UNIVERSAL
Violence N / WWW.BRUCELEEGAMES.COM
INTERACTIVE
RONIN
Bruce Lee: Quest of the Dragon © 2002 Universal Interactive, Inc. Bruce Lee and the Bruce Lee likeness are trademarks and copyrights of Concord Moon, LLP. Licensed by Universal Studios Licensing, Inc
All rights reserved. Microsoft, Xbox and the Xbox logos are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the U.S. and/or other countries and are used under license from Microsoft
ФЭ XPRESS
Now and Next
Buffy The Vampire Slayer
XBN gets a date with Buffy
When board games won't suffice.
Em mm 4.
a AN .
Shift Japan
www.shift.jp.org
www.seanbaby.com
8555
еме
Gamers.com Computer and Videogames Sea Monkeys
www.gamers.com www.computerandvideogames.com www.sea-monkey.com
« 020 xBN
4 zs 7
1:3 FA м ! га Player Card
PS Midfield
| |
\ 5117"
Height :
5 d m
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team - Kicks a soccer ball 98-Mph.
= Runs nearly 9 miles а game.
- Has multiple MVP and Player
of the Year awards.
- Captain - Team England.
a game
Helped « create a game
www.davidbeckhamsoccer.com
= TE
E сей
095275277
19% Q C MOL TE TE LITE: own
Developed in England under superstar David Beckham's watchful eye, prepare yourself for the most complete soccer
game ever created. Over 200 international and club teams compete for glory through multiple tournament and training
modes, while spot-on commentary and advanced А.І. assure authenticity. Are you ready to step into his world?
EVERYONE m
É
X
CEP GAME BOY ADVANCE LOOX un Б Rage ED
www.rage.com www. majoscogamos.com
© Rage Games Limited 2001. Developed by Rage Games. Published and distributed under license from Rage Games Limited. © Majesco Sales, Inc. All Rights Reserved. PlayStation and the PlayStation
logos are registered trademarks of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. Xbox and Xbox logos are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the U.S. and/or other countries.
Game Boy Color and Game Boy Advance are trademarks of Nintendo. ©2001 Nintendo. Screens shots were taken from the Xbox version of the video game.Photo EMPICS Sports Photography Agency.
ед XPRESS
VTV
el OPENING THE XBOX
XBN reviews Dean Takahashi's Xbox epic
OPENING
THE
XBOX
Inside Microsofts Plan to Unleash
an Entertainment Revolution
aor »
DEAN ТАКАНА5Н””
FOREWORD BY SEAMUS BLACKLEY à i
Takahashi, a veteran video game
journalist with credits at USA Today
truly did his homework ...
EW eed
$ 022 хвм
3.42
11111
[THEY CAN HERR MIN
ШШШ
ФЭ XPRESS
Now and Next
XBN's Jake Kazdal talks Tokyo turkey
Microsoft's Xbox, perhaps unsurprisingly,
ЙГ just hasn't had anything come easy in its
fairly rough landing into Japan's famously
picky games market. The launch has come and
gone, and the dust has settled...and Microsoft is
showing dismal numbers. Hardware is already being
discounted as much as 5000 yen ($40), and Microsoft
is finding itself in a tough position in the land of dating
sims and RPGs. The Xbox launch week sales of
123.000, have plummeted. One of Japan's largest
game magazine publishers, Enterbrain (publisher of
Famitsu), reports that Xbox sold 190,092 units
between launch day Feb. 22, to March 31; Microsoft
had 250,000 Xbox units prepared for launch in Japan.
In contrast, the PlayStation 2 sold 980,000 units in the
first three days after launching in Japan in March of
2000.
And the news gets worse.
For the first week of April, the PSOne,
Wonderswan, and Dreamcast all outsold the Xbox'
pitiful 2,179 units. To add insult to injury, the well-
publicized "scratch" glitch—whereby games and
CDs would get scratched during normal use in the
Xbox 一 started to make waves. Microsoft denied any
problem until March 7th, when it agreed to begin
allowing exchanges free of charge. In the ensuing
confusion, however, there was a period of several
days in which some large retailers and distributors
suspended sales until all was ironed out. Oddly
enough, no such problem existed for the American
or European launches.
games per unit of hardware, versus Sony's 1:1.
Interestingly enough. Halo, perhaps finally getting
some deserved recognition in the East, is moving up
Japan's most wanted charts. For the week of 3/21 -
3/27, Halo was actually at number 17 on Famitsu's
Top 30 Most Wanted list, higher than Nintendo's
Metroid Prime (21) and Star Fox Adventures (25).
Other Xbox games joining Halo in the Top 30 Most
Wanted were Atlus' Shin Megarnitensei Nine,
Sega/Hitmaker's Crazy Taxi 3: High Roller, and
Capcom's massive 40+ button need-a-special-
forklift-to-get-it-home controller Big Huge Robot
Warfest, Tekki, which seems to have the local gaming
populace unable to rule out an Xbox purchase
Sooner or later...just not necessarily right now.
Bach continues, "We're seeing lot of strong
support there. We expect our relationships there to
grow. It's not something you can jump into, and in
three weeks you have great relations with everyone. It
takes three months, or three years. There is still more
work to do in Japan."
Unfortunately, for some of Xbox' most willing
Japanese partners, the payoff simply hasn't shown
up yet. Smilebit's Jet Set Radio Future and
GunValkyrie have both sold dismally, with Jet Set
supposedly still coming in at less than 10,000 units
(nearly two months after launch). Smilebit's (for-now)
Xbox-exclusive Panzer Dragoon Orta (see page 34)
will be on show at this year's E3, leading the second
wave of top-tier Japanese games.
Xbox Japan needs a major system seller, and it
For the first week of April, the PSOne,
Wonderswan, and Dreamcast all outsold the
Xbox’ pitiful 2,179 units.
Microsoft executives have been quick to play down
the Xbox’ lackluster launch in Europe and,
particularily, Japan. Xbox director Robbie Bach was
quoted by Reuters news service as saying, "Japan is
going well on the software side, and is probably a
little behind where we want to be on the hardware
side. But we always expected things would be tough.
Microsoft has demonstrated patience and persistence
there before, and | think we will do very well.
On the bright(er) side, software ratios have actually
been above what PS2 reported around the same time
after launch; the Xbox is selling on average 1.6
$ 024 xBN
remains to be seen whether or not Microsoft has
anything up its sleeve. Some big Japanese guns will
undoubtedly be pulled out at ЕЗ, where many of the
bíg Japanese companies will reveal their long-range
plans for the coming year. Virtua Fighter 4 and
Metal Gear Solid X will both certainly help, but
Microsoft's Xbox simply needs bíg Japanese
originals to satisfy Japanese gamers. Time will tell if
the Xbox can hold its own in the Land of the Rising
Sun and 2003 will likely be a make-or-break year for
the fledgling console.
| had a few (unedited) words with the director at
Anchor, in Tokyo, who is currently on his second
Xbox project.
Jake: Okay. give me your name, nationality and just
what have you been up to in the seedy Japanese
gaming world?
Hiroshi Inukai: My name із Hiroshi Inukai, born in
Japan. Our previous projects have been WWF Raw
for Xbox, Ultimate Fighting Championship for
Dreamcast, Toy Fighter for the arcade, Pride for
PlayStation 2, and our new project is making
Acegamer.net, an online gaming company.
J: What's the best thing about development on
the Xbox?
НІ: The Xbox' DirectX base has a lot of great
libraries. The machine is powerful and is the only
machine with broadband network system built in.
J: What do you most dislike about the Xbox?
HI: Microsoft and Microsoft Japan don't have a lot of
gaming professionals. The buttons on the American
controller feel like they will break easily. Its also so
huge! Imagine if you were looking for girls in Shibuya
and one invited you to go her 6-tatami [Ed. Note:
one tatami is 1 meter by .5 meters long, the common
way of determining the size of an apartment in
Japan] room. If she had an Xbox, you would be
surprised because it's so huge and black and so
manly. It's not cute at all!
J: So why is the Xbox so unhip right now in Japan?
What must Microsoft do to get it together?
НІ: Xbox is designed for both the American home
theater, and the consumer market. It’s a good design,
but because Japanese houses are so small you really
can't have a home theater. The Japanese assume
that they can’t put together а home theater іп their
small house or one-room apartment, so Xbox big
selling point is "only game.” So Microsoft has to
make a game image and not a home theater image.
But MS Japan doesn’t seem to understand this
because they don't have a lot of real game
professionals. Microsoft asks, "what is game?"
4 |
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MILD LYRICS
www.sega.com DIGITAL ESRB
Sega is registered in the U.S. Patent and Tra
Hitmaker!/SEGA, 2002. Dolb
4 and the Xbox logos аге eith
mark ОСЕ 55608 and Crazy Taxi 3: High Roller are eith gi
ООСО tademarks of Dolby Laboratories. The ratings icon
arks ortauemarks of Microsoft Corporation in the U.S. and/or in other с
Пу ооооововоое сте ов
ФЭ XPRESS
Моу/ апа Мехі
. “Мо love, you must look at the screen when fiddling with the
bitty knobs and buttons on the controller. Yes, | know it's heavy.
Yes, my name is Jonathan Ross and I'm a B-list TV personality in
the UK here and | am wearing a very ugly tie."
« 026 хвм
It was the evening before Xbox: March 14
a launch date here in the United Kingdom.
Virgin's flagship London Megastore
sported а giant green rotating Xbox logo projected
onto its facade like a laser targeting mark for
some passing Death Star, while lime-green Hare
Krishna types conga'd down the world-famous
Oxford Street, chanting Xbox' praises and handing
out leaflets promising gaming salvation.
And the queue! It started at the store doors and
stretched, thankfully, past several fast-food outlets.
Hundreds shuffled excitedly, desperate to get inside.
But when the cameras from the national press started
flashing, the people on line became agitated. Were
country, especially given that it's not Christmas
(although it was, Microsoft told us, "X-mas"). What's
more, the software tie ratio (the number of games
sold per console) was a whopping 2.5:1. Many
retailers reported Halo was selling to a full 85 percent
of new Xbox owners.
Compare that to France and Germany. Depending
on who you believe, Microsoft was rumored to have
sold no more than 10,000 units to the citizens of each
of our continental cousins at launch. No wonder
Electronic Arts' president John Riccitiello quickly
surmised "Microsoft has had its teeth kicked in, in
both Europe and Japan."
Microsoft was quick to fight back, with the UK's
Virgin Megastore sported a giant green rotating Xbox
logo projected onto its facade like a laser
targeting mark for some passing Death Star
they scared that their partners (or parents) would
discover they hadn't really found “this games thing
going cheap in a junk shop?”
Were they just camera shy?
No. Rather, just like everyone else in the queue,
they weren't buyers but representatives of the UK
gaming industry who had turned up for an Xbox
launch party held in the bowels of the giant shop. And
they smelled a rat when the photographers came out.
When the headline "Buyers go X-static for Xbox"
appeared in the multi-million copy selling Sun
newspaper the next morning—complete with a picture
of yours truly and his cohorts “waiting on line" for a
machine we've had for months—it transpired that our
raucous gesticulation towards the paparazzi was all in
vain. Microsoft got its fake launch queue shots.
Exactly why Microsoft's marketing muppets
thought a confidence-building show of strength would
be to use the UK's most influential games people as
jobbing extras may never be absolutely clear. The
separate line of five or six real punters that had
formed by 8 p.m. (for a special midnight selling-
session) did give a clue, however. In Microsoft's world,
it seems nothing can be left to chance.
And the shame of it was that the initial UK launch
was a genuine success. Some 48,000 Xboxes were
sold in the first three days; big numbers for this
head of marketing Richard Teversham stressing, "This
і5 not just а three-week launch, it's a seven-to-10-year
project." And Xbox is still a great media show here,
what with the quirky advertising—the highlight of
which features a baby launching out of his mother's
womb and flying across the landscape, progressively
aging. before dying as an old man with the tagline
"Life's short. Play More?"—pitched perfectly for us
crazy Brits.
The real question, however, is what will happen
when Nintendo's GameCube arrives in May? The
consensus is that the two consoles will draw on very
different audiences. But at £165, GameCube could
still make Xbox's £299 price tag look like a misprint.
[Ed. Just before we went to press, Microsoft
announced that it was dropping the price of the Xbox
in Europe to 2199--а full 100 quid—in order to
compensate for less-than-expected sales. See page
14 for more details.]
The lesson for now, however, is that the UK-US
"Special Relationship" extends even to consoles. So
return the favor, chuck your rugby-with-helmet games
in the bin, and buy some British games. Project
Gotham's a good one, and you might start saving for
Lionhead's Project Ego and B.C., too.
You will need us again before this console war is
оуег and сіопе.
UNIVERSAL
o
INTERACTIVE ||
4 | CONTENT RATED BY
y
: MC Бар ша ن | | о |
Here comes Crash, in the biggest character-based game to hit Xbox. The Wrath of Cortex. Lightning-fast crashbandicoot.com
load times. Super-enhance graph environments, He's really going all out for this one,
Iniversal Interactive, Inc. Crash Bandicoot and related characters № & © Universal Interactive, Inc. All rights reserved.
“Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath | [ 0
rks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the U.S. and/or other countries and are used under license from Microsolt.
Microsoft, Xbox and the Xbox |
8) ХРВЕ55
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Got money? Blow it all on this stuff for your Xbox
< 028 XBN
“The best crashes ever in a video game" - IGN
The most spectacular real-time
crashes. Ever.
are quite а зо”
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EVERYONE
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CONTENT RATED BY | Criterion PlayStations NINTENDO
ESRB | 8 GAMECUBE. Xeox
Burnout" © 1998-2002. Criterion Software Limited. All Rights Reserved. Burnout is a Trademark of Criterion Software Limited. 2 Acclaim Entertainment, inc. Al Rights Reserved. Developed by Criterion Games. АП Rights Reserved. “PlayStation” and the "PS" Family logo are registered trademarks
f Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. Microsoft, Xbox and the Xbox Logos are either registered trademarks or trademar 00 the dior in other countries and are used under license from Mic: M®an Nintendo GameCube Ку demarks of Nintendo
Scree from the Xbox sion of the video game
© XPRESS
Now and Next
Xbox sales chart
Top-selling Xbox titles
There is no justice.
The saga contin- Aggressive Inline Skating Acclaim Sports August 2002
ues...to sell well.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer EA Action 2002
Not just for Brits! Crazy Taxi 2 Sega Action Summer 2002
Are you tired of Dave Beckham Soccer Rage Sports 2002
this yet?
Doom Ш Activision Action 2003
But WSB was just
around the corner!
Gravity Games Bike: Street. Vert. Dirt Midway Sports Spring 2002
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People like punch.
Kung-Fu Chaos Microsoft Party Winter 2002
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charts, so to speak.
Mat Hoffman’s Pro BMX 2 Activision Sports Spr/Sum “02
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БІЛІНЕ payne: MX Superfly THQ Racing Fall 2002
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Dear God: Please let thís
be an all-new game.
Terminator: Dawn of Fate Infogrames Action 2002
We know it's coming, and ToeJam and Earl Ill Sega Buddy Fall 2002
So do you. But when?
Transworld Snowboarding Infogrames Sports 2002
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how much better it gets. Vexx Acclaim Action October 2002
i M
қола be Cis do tive World Series Baseball Sega Sports ay 2002
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pat ошо але non Whacked Microsoft Action Fall 2002
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Skate as опе of the 10 top ргов:
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I
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Developed by н кде Rd the Z-Axis logo are
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у > of Z-Axis, Ltd. All Rights PlayStation and,
798 inmentdnc. Microsoft, Xboxand'the Xbox Logos are either registere
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0 4 Boy Advance are trademarks of Nintendo. 9 2001 Nintendo: Screens Shown were
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Der
E) FEATURE
After years of speculation as to the future of one of Sega's
most beloved franchises, XBN is granted a world-exclusive
preview and playtest of Panzer Dragoon Orta.
“ A
— ч
[2 FEATURE
(Above) The graphical
The Tokyo Game Show,
March 2001. Microsoft and
— —À Sega executives take the
detail in Panzer Dragoon
Orta is of an order of
nitude greater than —
stage to announce 11 Sega games
ything you're likely to
see on Xbox th ear. The
are in development for Xbox. One
sense of sca ed by
causes waves of excitement to
ripple through the crowd. “Panzer
Dragoon coming to Xbox!” screams
every gaming Web site 30 minutes
later—inaugurating a year of
speculation, debate, and fanboy
fisticuffs over which system is the
thes:
эпогтоив airships is
equally impressive.
most worthy recipient for the return
of the esteemed series. Dreamcast
stalwarts are devastated,
PlayStation 2 converts are mystified,
and prospective Xbox owners are
very happy indeed. Meanwhile,
some people are still asking,
“What's a dragoon?”
Six months later at the September
TGS, anticipation is peaking around the
possibility of the first Panzer footage
stylistically, the Panzer games were
pure, undiluted genius and
featured a surreal, visionary world ...
being unveiled, :
Set Radio Future
about Jet
а debat
eloper Smilebit’s
potenti
| for pulling it all off. At
trailer kicks in depicting whe
an animated fossil follc
$ 036 XBN
struggles
gainst an evil empire pl ) jood | 1 ( проп
{һе most engrossing way plenty of ut be a premier
1cast," e Si it's head 1 е дап $ 1
sho, Такау
‘If you had to categorize it
could say it's a shooter," says
ame system to Panzer
—that is, on-rails
shooting with some collection and
dragon evolution along the way. We
pre-d
ed the nature of the game to
a giant futuristic spaceship. If you
thought the bosses were impressive in
Zwei (and they still are), you're in for a
massive treat
Control of the dragon is elegantly
handled we're happy to report—the
dragon is weightier than in Zwei,
although still responsive. And while
there was an overall feeling of familiarity
Our beautiful dragon swooped
through stormy chasms and past
mountain-dwelling civilizations
be on-rails, that way we could script
the surroundings and make the journey
a lot more beautiful. The enemy combat
system also only works if the game is
on rails, as their appearance is
scripted."
In the level XBN played the basic
in place, although
game em v
finished
aphics were not yet
implemented. Despite this, both the
scope.and. detail of the.graphics were
already extremely impressive, with
plenty of life visible as our beautiful
dragon swooped through stormy
mountain chasms, under rock bridges
and past mountain-dwelling
vilizations. At one point a mountain
chasm opened up into a large valley
arena, and we battled multiple faces of
here, many features such as a means to
accelerate and decelerate were yet to
be included. Firing and targeting were
up and running using the basic weapon
system from Zwei—one button is used
to machine gun enemies with a stream
of plasma bullets, as well as to lock on
and, when held down, target multiple
opponents. Upon targeting multiple
enemies, the dragon can let loose a
huge maelstrom of blue-laser streams
which looks (and sounds) extremely
impressive. And, as before, the
shoulder buttons rotate your
perspective to the sides and back,
allowing you to target enemies
approaching from any direction
Although nothing revolutionary in
itself, this early version is at least a hint
of a game more expansive, more
beautiful, and more refined than the
games that inspired it. "There are two
main differences players can look
forward to [beyond Zwer]," says
Mukaiyama. "One is the dragon
transformation element—the dragon
itself can transform depending on the
situation. It's a bit early to go into
specifics, but for example, you might
be able to transform shape depending
on the type of level, or speed up if the
stage requires it—different skills,
weapons...that kind of thing. The other
main difference is the level of freedom
that's available when flying the dragon
has been expanded dramatically. It's
still on rails, but now there's much
greater scope." The game will also
feature branching paths, giving the
game extended replay value
This time around the game is set
further inthe future, meaning all the
elements, such as the characters and
settings, will be futuristic and
appropriately developed from the
original. “Basically, the last Panzer
Dragoon games were set against the
decline of a civilization," Mukaiyama
explains. "It was an empty, deserted
lonely world. Panzer Dragoon Orta is
set at the start of the next civilization so
it's a world with more life. It's a
beginning, not an end."
There is encouraging news about the
might <
| Jap: е
st Saturn Panzer
S it features both
artwork done by
€ ustrator Jean
Giraud (aka Moebius). Savvy game-
can find the game on
eBay.com for around fifteen bucks.
owned French i
re
a
мл
p
E FEATURE
Panzer creators Takayuki Kawagoe and Akihiko Mukaiyama tell XBN what it takes
to make the game, and who's left from the original team
Work began on the new
Panzer project around the
time of its announcement
just over a year ago. Of course,
speculation had long been circulating
about a disbanded Team Andromeda
and how this had potentially sealed
the fate of the series. Some
members had left the company in
pursuit of new pastures—such as
original dragon concept artist
Manabu Kusunoki and programmer
Hidetoshi Takeshita who joined
independent developer Artoon under
the direction of the renowned Yoji
Ishi (former head of Sega R&D).
Similarly, other ex- Team Andromeda
members found homes in the fledging
Sega divisions taking form after the big
internal Sega shake up two years back;
people such as United Game Artists"
Katsumi Yokota—visionary art lead on
recent trance-blasting masterpiece
Rez—who contributed to the incredible
character designs of Saga (and, to a
lesser extent, Panzer Dragoon Zwei).
Keen to shed light on exactly who's
behind Panzer Dragoon Orta, why it's
coming to Xbox and to clear up one or
two other rumors that have been
hanging in the air too long, Xbox Nation
met the men in charge. Enter Smilebit
director Takayuki Kawagoe, Akihiko
Mukaiyama (the game's director/project
leader) and Koji Kuroki from Sega's
international business division.
Xbox Nation: How big is the whole
Panzer Dragoon Orta team at
Smilebit?
Takayuki Kawagoe: About 30 | think.
€ 040 xBN
XBN: There's been some concern
that the original developers at Team
Andromeda have been split up. And
most of them aren't at Smilebit...
Kawagoe: There are 10 members from
Team Andromeda working on Panzer
Dragoon Orta currently. But we actually
have another six Team Andromeda
members at Smilebit working on other
games here. For example Ueda-san, our
lead designer on Jet Set Radio Future,
is ex-Team Andromeda. Even though
they're not on the Orta project, they're
Still advising us as we progress, so you
could say 16 ex-Team Andromeda
members are involved with the project.
Akihiko Mukaiyama: Personally, | was a
planner on Panzer Dragoon Saga. |
worked on the battle system.
XBN: Is Microsoft funding the
development of the new game?
Or is it Sega?
Kawagoe: Let the guy from Sega
answer that one!
Koji Kuroki: The cost of development is
Sega-funded.
XBN: Did you approach Microsoft
with the idea for this game, or did
they ask you to develop it?
Kawagoe: We went to Microsoft with
the idea. Given our investment in and
experience with the console, it made
sense.
XBN: So this was a Smilebit project
from the start? Don't your
shareholders put pressure on you to
devote more of your resources to
PlayStation 2, given that your last
two Xbox games didn't perform that
well sales-wise?
Kawagoe: There have been some
problems with Xbox in Japan, and
probably Europe. The European launch
doesn't seem to have been too
successful. But we are optimistic about
the Xbox market in the United States.
Perhaps the timing of our last two
releases worked against us. But with
Orta, we expect the market will have
matured, and the game itself will be a
bigger leap as a second-generation
title.
XBN: Some would say that Jet Set
Radio Future and GunValkyrie were
aimed toward hardcore gamers. Is
Panzer Dragoon Orta aimed at the
same kind of player?
Kawagoe: I'm hoping Panzer Dragoon
Orta will appeal to a wider audience.
Original fans of the series should
recognize and appreciate the game,
and probably get some things that
others won't. But we're going all out to
make it an amazing enough experience
50 that anyone will be able to enjoy it.
Sure, the fans will be there on day one,
but we hope that their friends will see it
and be persuaded to get it too over
time. We hope it can be enjoyed by all
ages.
XBN: How does the team find
developing on Xbox generally?
AM: We'd been working on Direct X
and PC for a while, and Xbox is pretty
close to a PC development-wise. So it
has been quite easy.
XBN: Will the game taking special
advantage of any Xbox features like
the hard drive or broadband?
Mukaiyama: The hard drive gives us
faster loading times, and lets us
manipulate the tempo of the game
much better: transitions, music, etc.
Kawagoe: | know that a lot of other
Xbox games let you do things like
substitute your own music. But the
Panzer Dragoon experience is more
cinematic, more scripted, so we wanted
to keep control of the synthesis of
music and game.
XBN: Finally, we've heard rumors that
Panzer Dragoon Orta is not the only
new game planned in the Panzer
series. Are there any plans to release
a Panzer Dragoon RPG sequel as
well?
Mukaiyama: Not at the moment.
XBN: Then where do these rumors
come from?
Mukaiyama: [Laughs] Well, actually, |
did want to create a new RPG based
on the Panzer universe. | have even put
together a design document for it. But-
for now, it's still unplanned.
XBN: Thank You.
Mukaiyama: And you.Those were the
hardest questions we've ever ha
Panzer Prologue
E) FEATURE
In 1995 Sega's Team Andromeda created the first Panzer Dragoon for the
32-bit Saturn and gave birth to a legendary series of games
Beyond punishing
deadlines and cubicle
psychosis, achieving
artistic notoriety in video games has
usually been a case of pulling off
impossible stunts in the face of
technical adversity. Back in the mid-
'90s when gamers started to
demand believable 3D worlds,
adversity was provided by the
clunky, chunky, and downright
difficult-to-program Sega Saturn. It
wasn't that it was short of
horsepower, it just needed a damn
good driver at the wheel. And with
twin CPUs and six extra processors
dedicated to graphics and sound
functions, getting this 32-bit beast to
crank out impressive 3D was akin to
getting pandas to mate in captivity.
However, for those who ate
machine code for breakfast, great
things were possible on the Saturn—
notably the original Panzer Dragoon
which first surfaced in May 1995 in
the United States (two months earlier
in Japan). The game originally
started out as a technology demo for
the Saturn accompanying the
Saturn's official announcement in
early '94. However, upon its release it
became a powerful retort to
Nintendo's first venture into SD; the
Super FX-chip powered Star Fox for
the 16-bit Super Nintendo.
The premise for Dragoon was
simple—Space Harrier-style on-rails
shooting but with texured 3D
environments. But it was depicted
with such esoteric style and dramatic
execution that it found immediate
favor with the Saturn's growing base
of fans. Stylistically, there was even a
nod to a visionary comic artist
Mobeius (a.k.a. Jean Giraud) in there
too—he provided two pieces of art
for the game.
Set in a post-apocalyptic world
1,000 years in the future, the story
details for Panzer Dragoon—a hero
named Edge, an armored blue
dragon, genetic engineering, armies
of cyborgs, bizarre mechanical
flying creations—were
overshadowed by the game’s
breathtaking artistic vision.
The game’s main innovation was
the 360-degree viewpoint, a
welcome step beyond contemporary
fixed background shooters such as
Silpheed. But whereas Panzer
Dragoon was criticized for lacking
depth, its exceptional follow-up
Panzer Dragoon Il Zwei made
amends with Out Run-style split
paths (which are certain to make a
return in Panzer Dragoon Orta)
directly affecting the shape of the
dragon as well as its stamina levels
and range of motion. Zwei was a
masterpiece of shoot-’em-up
engineering containing, in particular,
some memorable boss encounters.
But it seemed that whatever point
team Andromeda was striving
towards with Panzer Dragoon and
its sequel was finally reached with
Panzer Dragoon Saga. With less than
10,000 copies released, it has since
become the holy grail of Saturn
gaming (one that regularly fetches
upwards of $150 on eBay.com).
Released around the same time as
Final Fantasy У!!, Saturn owners
scoffed at Square’s overblown
PlayStation FMV fest, revelling
instead in a Panzer that was blown
wide open, with a combat engine
that was a perfect fusion of classic
shooting with the strategic depth of
a typical RPG, minus the usual
tedium. It was perfect; a living,
breathing world with real integrity
that the developers must have
sweated blood to create.
Two generations of hardware have
come and gone, and it's still hard not
to be impressed with either Zwei or
Saga. Oddly though, whether it was
down to the Saturn's crude texture
handling or just intelligent use of
texture color, playing Zwei or Saga
these days is something of a
revelation. For a glimpse of how 3D
game art often “deteriorates” the
better technology gets (the old
argument of thé more realism you
create, the more flaws are visible),
look no further. As a contrast to the
overly clean environments of many.
contemporary games, the worlds of
Panzer display a visual charm akin to.
the latest cel-shading techniques.
Less is more perhaps? For Smilebit,
now mastering the controls of a new
generation of gaming technology, the
artistic challenge at stake is perhaps
greater than anyone might have at
first thought.
Jason Brookes
A Panzer Chronology
Panzer Dragoon
Released: March 1995 (Japan), May
1995 (USA)
Despite a reputation for mediocre
3D graphics, the Saturn drops the
world's collective jaw with a virtual
onslaught of swirling dust devils,
giant sandworms, and futuristic
battleships oozing of organic-
technology. For a simple shooter, the
original Panzer made for a
captivating experience.
Panzer Dragoon Il Zwei
Released: March 1996 (Japan) April
1996 (USA)
More of the same, really, but a few
meaningful tweaks to the formula
made Panzer Zwei more than twice
the first game.
Panzer Dragoon Saga
Released: Jan. 29, 1998 (Japan),
April 17 1998 (USA)
A wonderful marriage 01 the hand-
crafter Panzer Dragoon experience
(read: shooter, infinitely
customizable dragon, etc.) with the
depth and resonance of 8 full-on
role-playing game, Detractors cited
the use of only one playable
characteras a drawback, but that's
missing the point. A wonderful
storyline, beautiful (even now)
graphics and design, and a fitting
finale to the trilogy add up to create
a 25-hour experience that still
resonates with those who played it.
Indispensable.
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* FUTURE
Coming Soon to Xbox
He's 6 feet 5 inches tall, bald as Bruce Willis, and has an enormous barcode
clearly visible on his Arnuld-size neck. He should blend right in, then...
Simon Cox
GAMERS: TOM
Ж
We ve given. уди
you tee)
| e.
) print magazines.
From the Editors of:
TOER
JAMD
EARL
“Can we ask you a
question?”
Greg Johnson and Mark
Voorsanger, creators of the goofy
video game characters ToeJam and
Earl, are plopped down on the floor
of an office somewhere in northern
California. Funk music wafts out of
speakers from a computer, and
Johnson, the taller and more intro-
spective of the two, has just turned
a perfectly decent interview on its
ear. “What’s your explanation for
why ToeJam and Earl has hit the
spot with so many people?” he asks.
“Why do you think it's resonated?”
It's a good question, and one not
easily answered. It seems unlikely that
a game starring two aliens, one essen-
tially a big yellow pudding in sneakers
and the other a three-legged, medal-
lion-wearing,cherry-Popsicle-with-
bug-eyes-looking-thing, would stand
the test of time. Yet ToeJam and Earl,
released for the Sega Genesis when
George W. Bush's daddy held the
presidency, managed to do just that—
$ 046 XBN
and then some. А sort of child's
daydream (complete with a herd of
nerds and a malicious-yet whimsical
boogeyman) brought to life on a 16-bit
console, Earl gained a cult following
with its unique characters and quirky
play. Now, some 10-plus years after
the fact, people are paying upwards of
$50 for a copy of the game on
eBay.com and Voorsanger and
Johnson have their eyes on the skies
and their buttocks on the floor, prepar-
ing to hype ToeJam and Earl Ill: All
Funked Up for the Xbox.
Bring forth the funk. When the 12
Sacred Albums of Funk are stolen
from their home on the planet
Funkotron, the planet-hopping
ToeJam and Earl are dispatched by
the Great Funkopotomus to retrieve
them. The dynamic duo is dispatched
to the mudball Earth, the wacky little
nowhere that was the setting for the
original ToeJam and Earl. With the
never-before-seen Latisha—a pretty
Funkotronian femme with blue skin
and enough jewelry to shame Mr. T
many times over—along for the
ride, ToeJam and Earl must retrieve
the holy platters of funk while simulta-
neously converting the locals to a
more enlightened and funkified state
of existence.
"We're on kind of mission—a secret
mission," Johnson says. "A lot of
people who make games take things
very seriously, and you have to look at
the word 'play' and wonder, what's
that all about? Serious/play,
Serious/play—they don't seem to
really go together. Well, | guess they
do, but to the detriment of the word
‘play.’ Our secret mission is to bring а
little more lightheartedness into the
world of video game play, because so
much of it is so intense."
If “lighthearted” was currency,
ToeJam and Earl Ill could rightly be
redeemed for, say, The Mona Lisa or,
perhaps, Guam. Insane dentists with
drills scamper throughout the game's
levels, a wise man in a carrot suit
augments our heroes' abilities when
they've gained enough experience,
there's a Yeti who jabs a mean pencil, a
decidedly African-American Santa
Funk, warbling country-western
singers, and psychotic mailboxes.
ToeJam, Earl, and Latisha will be also
harangued by humans aplenty such as
peppy cheerleaders with oversized
smiles, hulking construction workers,
and fat-bodied tourists in skimpy cloth-
ing. The message here, simply, and as
stated by cartoonist Walt Kelly is, we
have met the enemy and he is us.
"Satire is a valuable form of humor,"
Johnson says. "It lets you step outside
yourself and see things in a different
way. We've had so much fun with the
construction worker whose personality
is, you know, he's trying to be cool: 1
am up with that, Homey-man! | am
inside the house!' Or the cheerleader
who says, 'Gimme a B! Gimme a G!
What's that spell? Ва!”
ToeJam and Earl Ill brings the
Funkotronians into 3D for the first time,
and the game threatens to be
gorgeous. Environments, be they
bucolic meadows decorated with
XBN 047 2
$ 048 XBN
XBN 049 9
$ 050 XBN
а”.
ex.
ЖЕ
л прай
A brief history of ToeJam and Earl ...
XBN 05: >
5
一 一
nanm
~
$ 052 XBN
м FUTURE
Coming Soon to Xbox
First-person perspective. Cel-shaded graphics. Ubi Soft adds two plus two and
comes up with 13. XBN does the math on this amnesiac's mystery.
Sometimes you get an
abundance of riches. The
Xbox came charging out of
the gate sporting perhaps the finest
first-person shooter ever made,
Halo, followed by an excellent port
of Max Payne and the highly-antici-
pated Unreal Championship due to
be released later this year. So with
the bar set that high, how do you
compete? Well, if you're a Paris-
based company like Ubi Soft, you
push the quality that French
developers have always had in
spades: Style.
Witness X///. Based оп the most
popular graphic novel ever published
in France, its premise is a little creaky,
but the overall package is looking
quite nice indeed. You begin the game
not knowing just who your character is
(this is the creaky part—just roll with it
for now). You awaken on a beach, with
no memory of who you are or how you
got there, and the only immediate clue
to your identity is a mysterious "XIII"
tattooed on your chest.
Oh, and the small fact that there's a
group of thugs headed your way who
definitely mean to do you some
serious bodily hurt might lead you to
believe you're in some sort of trouble.
While the “wake up with total
amnesia" motif may have been done
before, it still lends itself well to the
structure of a game—and the develop-
ers at Ubi Soft Paris are doing
everything they can to squeeze as
much drama and mystery out of the
concept as they can.
XIII runs using a modified version of
Epic's next generation Unreal Il engine,
and plays off of the story's graphic
novel roots with cel-shaded visuals
and a heavily plot-driven structure.
Make no mistake though, the team is
well aware of the pitfalls of relying
heavily on the standard gameplay-
cutscene-gameplay model (the sort of
that nearly swamped Metal Gear Solid
2, for example). Instead, they're taking
a more Half-Life style approach, in
which the story comes to you.
As the game progresses, you
discover bits and pieces of your
identity through conversations with
different characters, reading found
documents, and experiencing the
occasional flashback. In this way the
plot unfolds organically as you work
through various goals, and will
hopefully enhance gameplay rather
than pull you completely out of it. Even
the flashbacks take place within the
game engine and use a black-and-
white, over lit and high-contrast
rendering technique to make them feel
suitably “mental.” The amnesia-driven
plot device is being neatly exploited to
keep you guessing; allies may turn out
to be enemies, and nothing is ever
quite what it seems.
Recovering your memory has a
distinct effect on gameplay as well. As
you gradually learn about who you are,
you learn new skills. When you first
wake up you can barely hold a gun.
Before long, however, you're discover-
ing that you somehow know martial
arts. You've also clearly been trained in
a number of small (and not so small)
arms, from knives to machine guns.
Infiltration and stealth skills are on the
list too, and you even have a kind of
"sixth sense" that enables you to know
instinctively when danger is near—
obviously, your character is not a waiter.
One of XIIl’s more unique and inter-
esting elements is that some of the
characters you interact with also affect
gameplay: From time to time, Al-driven
allies will help you in your quest in
ambitiously active, cooperative ways.
This is demonstrated during a brisk
chase across a city's rooftops. A
female agent named Jones is there to
provide covering fire against the many
gang members hunting you—and,
naturally enough, you have to return
the favor. The goal of featuring smart,
autonomous allies is something of a
holy grail in gaming these days (and
again, give the nod to Halo), so this is
one element whose progress will
certainly be worth keeping track of—
doubly so, even, because gameplay is
not all run-and-gun action.
Like Metal Gear Solid 2, No One
$ 054 xBN
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ИШ THIS/IS/'NOW!!
PIKMIN SOLVED INSIDE A G
ға [
Bringing you the best in multi-console coverage
e Reviews Available at:
Previews • Borders + Funcoland « Walgreens
N ews a Electronics CVS
rnes Boutique Kroger
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2 B. Dalton Best Buy Toys R Us
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Strate gy GameStop Target
Y FUTURE
ng Soon to
In a world where road rage is prevalent, it's great to know Sega has found the
perfect formula for keeping us indoors—nice and safe, like.
₪ Imagine a strange and futuristic world in
which cars drive you and the opera isn't
just when some guy gets stabbed, instead
of dying, he sings about it for two hours ...
+ 056 XEN
Leading the charge in a trio
of Xbox exclusives is Sega
GT 2002, a sequel to the
two-year-old Sega GT on Dreamcast,
and arguably Sega's attempt to claw
back some kudos in an arena that's
seen Sony and Kazunori Yamauchi
die-cast a formula for racing perfec-
tion. Of course, comparisons
between GT and Gran Turismo are
unavoidable, if only because the
Dreamcast original tried so hard to
realize almost every design
innovation that Sony's series had
celebrated—essentially, hundreds of
licensed cars, tons of parts to
customize them with, and some truly
daunting racing challenges.
Despite the blatant borrowing of
ideas, and the adding of a few of its
own, the original Sega GT was flawed
in several key areas. Visually eclipsed
by Dreamcast titles such as Test Drive
Le Mans and F355 Challenge, and with
presentation and handling problems
compounded by a punishing difficulty
level, GT was lost in Gran Turismo's
slipstream. Now, developer Wow
Entertainment is thinking it's time to set
the record straight, and early signs of
this powerful followup are encouraging.
"Sega GT 2002 is as close to finding
a perfect balance between the sim-
Style play and arcade accessibility as
l've seen on the Xbox," says the
game's U.S. producer, Noah Maher.
“Тһе interface is definitely much more
user-friendly than in the first game.
Sega GT for Dreamcast was a great
game for the strictly serious racing
fanatic, but it was hard for casual
gamers to get involved. [Wow
Entertainment] has completely solved
this by enhancing the control and
eliminating the floaty steering of the
first game."
As a visual benchmark, even at 40-
50 percent complete, GT 2002 can
easily lay claim to be the best-looking
Xbox racer yet. Vehicle models are a
step up from those in Sony's Gran
Tourismo 3 and are packed with
exceptional reflection and bump-
mapping detail. Likewise, draw
distance, scenery detail, and texturing
are leaps ahead of the original, with
towering skyscrapers and mountains
framing the action.
It's the game's new Chronicle mode,
however, which is perhaps the biggest
step beyond the original. Effectively a
teary-eyed homage to a more innocent
time in racing history, this puts you
behind the wheel of classic cars from
the '60s, “705, “805 and beyond,
providing an interesting juxtaposition of
old and new, and presenting the
opportunity to race tuned-up classics
against future concept cars. And an
interesting touch is how the action
gradually changes from sepia-toned to
full color as the races progress.
Considering Sega's rich lineage of
соіп-ор racers, it's about time the
company delved a little deeper again,
and the feeling with GT 2002 is of a
game far tighter in execution. Of
course, with ultra-realistic vehicle
dynamics, dozens of licenses, themed
races, a fully kitted-out garage, and
enough tune-up options to keep even
the most anally retentive car nut happy,
GT 2002 looks like a refined piece of
automotive engineering. All you need to
be is serious about cars—and GT 2002
has more than 125 of them...
Jason Brookes
м FUTURE
Coming Soon to Xbox
&1
CONNOR
< 058 XBN
TERMINATOR:
DAWN OF FATE
Y FUTURE
Coming Soon to Xbox
Here's a recipe for disaster: First, man made machines. Then, man made
machines mad.
Now, at the Dawn of Fate,
ЕН the mad, man-made
machines will make war on
man. Expect mass сагпаде, twisted
metal, and plenty of hurt feelings (but,
oddly, no blood and no Arnold
Schwarzenegger) when Infogrames
and developer Paradigm
Entertainment bring the Terminator
universe to the Xbox. Terminator: The
Dawn of Fate, a third-person shooter
with a pounding rock soundtrack
and plenty of high ordinance, serves
as a prequel to James Cameron's
violent film The Terminator.
Dawn of Fate ends where The
Terminator begins, and opens in 2027
amid the ruins of a shattered Los
Angeles. Human forces under the
command of John Connor uncover a
fiendish plot; the evil computer Skynet
intends to send a Terminator robot
back to 1984 in order to kill Connor's
mom before she can give birth to
John. As rational discourse often fails
to ameliorate a Terminator's homicidal
outlook, players will need to fight their
way through the game's 11 levels, and
the developers make no pretense
about Dawn of Fate being anything
other than a "relentless action game."
Infogrames and company fully intend
for fans of the Terminator films to get an
eyeful of the future war between the
humans and Skynet in Dawn of Fate—
and have been granted a lot of creative
license to flesh out its details. "We went
in and created tons of Skynet stuff that's
never been seen before," Francois
Lourdin, senior producer for Infogrames
says. This means players will be treated
to new Terminators, new hunter/killer
units, new human protagonists, and
even, Lourdin says, "a new kind of
enemy that's never been seen."
The walls of Paradigm
Entertainment's demonstration room
bear witness to Lourdin's statement.
They're thickly decorated with sketches
of mechanical marvels, humans packing
heat enough to fry St. Louis, and
fearsome killing machines. Among the
never-before-seen terrors are the
hulking and one-eyed Terminator 400s,
their metallic hides stricken with a
Severe case of orange-colored rust, as
well as their more-imposing brethren the
T-800s. Also posted on the walls are
drawings of strange human-robot
hybrids—these are the mysterious
"Digihumans" who play a pivotal role in
the game's plot.
Players take control of the Tech Com
heroes Kyle Reese (the protagonist of
the original Terminator film, the big and
bald hero Justin Perry ("he's a big guy,
so he gets a big gun," the developers
say about Perry), and the female fighter
Lt. Luna; sadly, the characters do not
vary save for their appearances and the
weapons they carry. The game offers 15
different weapons such as shotguns,
plasma rifles, C4 explosive charges, and
rocket launchers for the heroes to use,
and it will also be possible to attack
Skynet's forces up close and personal
with a plasma baton or with a series of
kicks and rush attacks. If a Terminator
gets knocked off its feet, it’s possible to
dispatch it with a well-placed baton stab
to its chest—and the resultant explosion
is well worth the danger inherent in
coming within kissing distance of such
an imposing killing machine.
An early, warts and all, walkthrough
of Dawn of Fate showed off the game's
great appeal: its almost singleminded
emphasis on killing them all and letting
the God of Technology Gone Awry sort
them out—as well as its Achilles’ heel, a
dynamic camera system that
dynamically stunk. To their credit, the
developers repeatedly insisted they're
aware of the camera's flaws, and have
vowed to work hard to correct the
problem. "We're going to be working on
the camera until they tell us to stop and
the game ships," Ken Tabor, lead game
designer says.
Because the game is intended for
teens, neither Infogrames nor Paradigm
intends for the game to contain blood. It
seems an odd choice considering that
humans are going to get shot—a lot, but
this is perhaps nitpicking; the more
obvious omission here is with a certain
Austrian strongman whose likeness
rights Infogrames was unable to secure.
Still, the game holds a lot of potential
for fans of the Terminator series.
Frenetic firefights are highlighted by
Terminators teleporting in via huge pink
and blue explosions, and players can
opt to fight in first-person perspective,
which adds a lot of tension to the
proceedings but, sadly, fixes a character
in place until the perspective is changed
back to the third person. Missions,
which range from blowing stuff up to
escorting humans (often so they can
blow stuff up), are built around the
notion that action is life, and life is
indeed quite fine.
Developer Paradigm Entertainment
seems to have a good handle on the
game's plot which is pretty darn deep
for a rather straightforward shooter.
Though specific details are being kept
to a minimum, Dawn of Fate features
plenty of intrigue in the form of some
humans whose allegiances aren't all that
well defined. Tabor hints much of Tech
Сот” history will be revealed, as well.
"It's not all pretty," he notes.
Greg Orlando
Ш Terminator: Dawn of Fate's story involves
a lot of intrigue in the form of a ... ah, that
would be telling!
XBN 059 》
Y FUTURE
Coming Soon to Xbox
HOUSE
OF THE
It’s the dawn of the day of the night of the living dead and you're looking a lot
like zombie chow. What do you do, hero? What do you do?
№ According to Webtender.com, it's
possible to build a better zombie by mixing
rum, creme de almond, sweet and sour, and
coconut juice. With a twist of lime.
% 060 XBN
Zombies have an annoying
n habit of reappearing just
when you think there can't
possibly be any more. They waltzed
endlessly through The Night of the
Living Dead, staggered through
countless sequels and homages,
hobbled alongside Michael Jackson
in his “Thriller” video, and kept Chris
Redfield and Jill Valentine up all night
in Resident Evil. (Jill... What is it?"
“It's another zombie you idiot.")
And they're back, once again, this
time courtesy of Sega and House of the
Dead 3. In a similar twist of fate to that
of Crazy Taxi, the game series has
migrated from the Dreamcast to Xbox
(and from the small screen to the big
Screen: ludicrously, both titles have
movie spin-offs planned, as well). It
appears that this second sequel was
originally also heading for DC and
Naomi 2, but plans have changed
and—despite the arcade technology
still to be confirmed (it'll launch simulta-
neously on the Xbox and in the
arcades, and we're expecting the
arcade game will run on Xbox-based
hardware)—the game's console home is
now exclusively Xbox.
First things first: Don't ask about a
light gun, as there's bound to be one.
Just don't expect a fanfare to surround
its release; violence in video games is a
touchy subject these days. Do,
however, expect a coin-op quality gun
game, and one that hopefully puts the
Xbox through its paces as well as the
original worked the Dreamcast
hardware. "There were many things that
we wanted to do before, but were never
able to," Sega representatives at Wow
Entertainment say. "With Xbox, many of
these things became possible. So not
only can we build upon the concepts of
the previous game, but we can increase
the size of the game itself and do
tremendous things with the design,
graphics, and even the sound."
Oddly, the game's visuals seem to
have gone through something of a
transition in recent months. Initial
screenshots employed a beautiful, cel-
shaded approach that seems to have
been toned down—perhaps in light of
the favorable response to Capcom's
ultra-realistic Resident Evil for
Gamecube, or perhaps negative
reaction from online forums (“Оһ no, it's
Jet Set Radio Future with zombies!").
To clear this matter up we asked the
developers what's going on: "It's not so
much cel-shading as much as the
properties of some of the techniques
used in cel-shading that we wanted to
employ to make the game look more
realistic," they explained. Apparently the
game still uses "lit, cel-shaded effects"
but the overall look has been changed
to “а more realistic polygonal form."
“We're also considering utilizing the
powerful shading techniques often used
in American comic books as an added
layer of atmosphere," they add.
Wow is also striving for a "bigger,
more open" game to prop up these
visuals. "With the advancement of
hardware, we're attempting to create a
zombie-action game that has never
been done before; rethinking the very
basics behind the fear that zombies
exude. You'll feel a level of fear and
anxiety that you've never felt before."
While the Dreamcast's HotD 2 was
enjoyable and well received, it's debat-
able just how much replay value games
such as these retain. "We can't give any
more details at this point," Wow said,
“but we have included features that,
when you see them, you will think,
“What?! They put this kind of stuff in
here too?" We eagerly await.
Jason Brookes
Coming Soon to Xbox
Ш
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As most of us scratch our
heads at the inexplicable
lack of compelling storylines
in the video game canon, Tomas
Schaefer is attempting to alter the
existing landscape with his own
unique vision of the interactive narra-
tive. The guiding force behind a
talented team at Westka Interactive,
Schaefer has spent the last two
years nestled in his studio in
Cologne, Germany, working on the
largest undertaking of his career.
Speaking with Schaefer in his hotel
room at the Hyatt Sinclair Hotel in a
rain-drenched San Jose (where he is
demonstrating the game to potential
publishers attending the concurrent
Game Developers conference), his
excitement is immediately palpable
and his vision solemnly assured. In
thecourse of our discussion,
Schaefer is partial to three words, in
particular; namely, *freedom,"
*systems," and "illusion."
On a very fundamental level, Y-
Project will attempt to transcend
traditional genre labels. It uses Epic's
Unreal ІІ engine, but it is not a simple
first-person shooter. It involves
accumulating experience points and
conversing with hundreds of other
characters, but it is not a traditional
role-playing game. And, crucially, it's
not some messy combination of these
various forms, either. "Don't think we're
doing a genre-blending game,"
Schaefer insists with an engagingly
thick German accent. “I’ve seen too
many games in the last 10 years which
have tried to blend two or three genres.
Simply adding up the parts of different
genres does not make a good game."
Instead, Westka's approach is to
leave the structure of the gameplay as
open-ended as possible, allowing suffi-
cient elbow room for various player
types and styles. By attempting to
incorporate several different gameplay
"systems" into the world it has created,
Y-Project will essentially give the player
a say in not only the course of events
which take place, but the actual form
these events will take as well. Schaefer
explains: "Our way is to put the
freedom in the player's hands...it’s been
a very long process, in which we have
analyzed several different systems to
put it together. If anything would speak
out of the eyes of an RPG player—or a
FPS player, or an action-adventure
player—anything we put into the game
from other genres we had to actually
proof-test to be assured that it would
be okay for any player type. We're
trying to maintain balance and, more
importantly, freedom for the gamer."
(Despite their apparent similarities,
Schaefer resists comparisons to
acclaimed developer Warren Spector,
maintaining that he has a "very different
approach" to creating games.)
Y-Project takes place some 200
years into the future. Seventy years
before the game begins, a group of
humans leaves Earth—itself polluted
and ravaged beyond repair—in search
of new territory to settle. Prior to
landing, a genetic experiment is
botched onboard the spaceship and...
well, we all know what happens when
genetic experiments get "botched." A
failed attempt to develop a better
fertilizer instead produces a mutated
insect; upon landing, the insect
escapes, swells to many times its origi-
nal size, and reproduces exponentially.
The humans are forced to move into
one central, monolithic city nestled
inside an enormous glass dome.
Note to self: In the future, don't build
cities inside glass domes.
Seventy years after the landing—
and, effectively, the beginning of the
дате--іһе glass dome over the city is
destroyed. The insects enter en masse
into this once-burgeoning metropolis;
most of the inhabitants are killed,
leaving chaos and destruction in place
of peace and prosperity. The player's
role, then, is to save the surviving
humans from the insects and solve the
mystery behind their existence. Two
leading human factions have developed
in the crippled city, both sharing the
same goal. Each faction however,
represents a very different political and
Social view; one is rooted in science,
while the other, somewhat unsurpris-
ingly, favors a more violent, military-
minded approach.
In the opening scenes of Y-Project,
leaders of the two factions vie with one
another to recruit you into their faction.
They offer you weapons, tools and
other incentives, knowing that you are
an important weapon against the
insects. Your natural inclination towards
either of these approaches will partially
determine which faction you serve,
while the rest will be dictated by your
response to the leaders.
Throughout the game, members of
each faction will attempt to recruit you
for their cause. Each will reward you
with special energy and items when you
complete a quest for their group; in
turn, you'll be forced to make critical
decisions that will significantly affect the
course of the story and your own role
within it. (You collect different experi-
ence points depending on the faction
you are currently serving, and the XPs
for each faction are counted and
displayed separately.)
The player will thereby dictate his or
her own style of play, and will be forced
to question these beliefs after hearing
compelling arguments from the leaders
of each camp. "It's more of a play of
XBN 063 >
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Thomas Schaefer Christoph Kabelitz
Nano-nano-nano-nano-nano
XBN 065 》
м FUTURE
Point-and-click adventure games used to rule the world. Now a new, evolved ver-
sion of the genre, in the shape of Broken Sword 3, promises to regain the crown.
. Revolution has developed a sophisti-
cated facial animation system to convey
character emotions. Over the years, this
has proven very, very difficult.
$ 066 XBN
Despite the two previous
En episodes of Broken Sword
selling a million copies each,
it’s taken some time for UK-devel-
oper Revolution Software to continue
its groundbreaking series. “Point-
and-click adventures were great five
years ago, but now that's all out the
window,” explains managing director
and series storywriter Charles Cecil.
“with Broken Sword: The Sleeping
Dragon, we can harness the
opportunities of next-generation
hardware to create a visually
stunning contemporary adventure.”
One big shift in this new Sword is
obvious—the game environments and
characters have moved from cel-
shaded 2D into lushly lit 3D. “We've
spent a lot of time experimenting with
the [Xbox] hardware, seeing what it can
do,” Cecil says. “We're interested in a
style which uses a lot of contrast,
combining light and shadow and
putting warm and cold colors together
to create visual excitement.”
And frankly, it looks stunning.
Revolution is particularly proud of its
shadows, which are never so dark a
player can't see what clues might be
hidden in the corner of a room—vital for
a game with a strong detective element.
The characters have been given a
makeover to bring them into the third
dimension. The hero, George Stobbart,
has matured into a character with a
certain air of cool. “We didn't want to
end up with a video game cliché," Cecil
says. "He's not a broad-shouldered,
square-jawed action hero." Similarly,
French photojournalist Nico Collard is
sassy and sexy without crossing the
line into fodder for adolescent fantasy a
la Lara Croft. The development team is
also working on a virtual actor system,
which will allow script writers to choreo-
graph realistic emotions via the
characters through lip synch, facial
animation, and body stance.
One aspect of the gameplay Cecil is
keen to explain is the game's pacing.
One part of this is detective work. “1
think this is one thing about adventure
games that can really frustrate players,"
he says. "We want to take the opposite
approach. Detective work is what
people enjoy about adventure games,
so we make sure it moves fast. If you
get stuck, we'll give you hints."
Another gameplay element, poten-
tially more controversial, is the use of
pre-scripted action events in a similar
manner to Shenmue's Quick-Time
Events. “| thought Shenmue was inter-
esting, but 1 got bored, while in
Shenmue 2 the player didn't have much
control at all." Cecil explains. "Instead
of just having to press a button to
trigger an event, we will be offering
players choices using the action
events." The idea is that an icon map
will appear, whether by pre-scripted
actions or in proximity to an object the
player can interact with. Using this
System, a player will be able to give
orders to their partner, use their inven-
tory, or jump over a wall. "Instead of
requiring a player to have the manual
dexterity to press a button at the right
time, we can empower them to use
their minds,”Cecil says.
As for the plot, he doesn't want to
give much away at this early stage;
The Sleeping Dragon isn't due to be
released until late 2003. The game
starts, however, with Stobbart crash-
landing his plane in the Congo jungle
after a sudden electrical storm.
Meanwhile, in Paris, Collard is inves-
tigating the mysterious death of a
hacker who warned of great danger for
the Earth. Cecil says: “Of course,
George and Nico realize they are part of
the same plot, which ultimately brings
them together." Other locations include
underground pyramids in Ethiopia, a
gothic castle near Prague, and sleepy
rural villages in England—all of which
provide stunning backdrops and the
perfect opportunity to put the impres-
sive graphics engine through its paces.
Jon Jordan
XBN 067 >
E) FEATURE
PLAYER 1
E) FEATURE
PLAYER =
As Microsoft prepares to announce its final plans for the Xbox Live
online service, XBN presents the first in a two-part feature exploring what
broadband has to offer. We ask 10 industry luminaries to discuss their vision of
and reveal the five games
that will launch the service this Fall. It all starts here...
XBN 069 9
E FEATURE
By the time you read this, the E3 show will have come and gone,
and Microsoft will have revealed to the world the specifics of one
of its biggest gambles: Xbox Live, the broadband games service
that promises to change the way you play forever.
You will know how much it will cost (we’re guessing $29.95/month with
connection, or $9.95/month if you connect through your existing broadband
provider) and you will know the incentives Microsoft will put behind it (A free
Xbox when you sign up for a year with its provider?) and the launch dates.
If the gamble works, and it's a gamble that Sony is also taking with its
PlayStation 2 network, then we could be on the cusp of another major turning
Then: Sega's Yuji Naka is recognized the world over as a star video
game producer and designer. often mentioned in the same breath as
Nintendo's Shigeru Miyamoto. Creator of Sega's mascot, Sonic The
Hedgehog, Naka is president of Sonic Team, the group behind the
Sonic games, the classic Saturn title, Nights, as well as Phantasy
Star Online, Chu-Chu Rocket and Samba de Amigo.
Now: Naka is working on a follow up to the popular Phantasy Star
Online (Phantasy Star Online Ver. 2) for Xbox and Gamecube.
Then: Constantin is just 28 years old. He co-founded French studio
Kirialys in1995, and contracted for the now-defunct BMG Interactive.
before eventually finding his way to Ubi Soft, via middleware and 3D
authoring tools deviopment and the somewhat flawed, but original,
Conflict Zone for PC. Dreamcast, and PlayStation 2.
Now: Project Manager on the multiplayer Rayman Arena for Xbox and
Gamecube.
Then: Founded Visual Concepts way back in 1988 and has since lead
projects as diverse as the quirky Clay Fighter for Nintendo 64, the
superb Madden '94 and, er, Tazmania. Thomas pioneered the online
sports genre with highly rated NFL2K for Sega's underrated Dreamcast
in 1999, and had since gone on to produce the excellent NFL2K2
for the Xbox.
Now: Overseeing the broadband enabled NFL2K3 and NBA2K3, and
running what is fast becoming the premier US sports studio.
Then: A professional game designer and frequent writer on issues of
virtual world design, Koster was the lead designer on the million-selling
Ultima Online. His essays and writings on online world design include
influential pieces such as "Declaring the Rights of Avatars," "The Laws
of Online World Design," and, er, "A Story About a Tree.”
Now: Creative director at the Austin studio for SOE, heading up the
design of the massively multiplayer Star Wars Galaxies.
Then: Spector spent seven years at Origin Systems producing scads
of addictive games including Underworld: The Stygian Abyss.
Underworld 2: Labyrinth of Worlds, System Shock, Serpent Isle,
Wings of Glory and many more. А brief stint with Looking Glass
Technologies was followed by lon Storm, where he directed the
development of the excellent Deus Ex.
Now: As Studio Director of lon's Austin office, Spector is currently
knee-deep in the development of Thief 3 and Deus Ex 2.
$ 070 хвм
point in the history of video gaming. But unlike such white elephants as virtual
reality, everyone agrees broadband gaming is the future. It's just matter of time.
The question is, are we ready for it now?
Before we obsess over the specifics (that's Part 2), XBN has asked the
industry, in the form of 10 veterans of game design—many of whom have
worked on online games in the past—to give you its take on what broadband
gaming will be like, not just in the near future, but years from now. Then on page
75 we exclusively reveal the online components of perhaps the most-anticipated
game since Bungie's Halo; Unreal Championship, as well as the four other
games that Microsoft is counting on to take the Xbox live.
Then: Molyneux invented the god-game with the release of Populous
in 1988. He produced a number of innovative hits through his company,
Bullfrog Productions including Theme Park, Syndicate and Dungeon
Keeper. In 1997, Molyneux formed Lionhead Studios and released
Black and White ісг PC.
Now: Heading up the Lionhead "satellites" indy development program
and working on Black and White Next Generation, B.C. and Project
Ego (with satellite Big Blue Box).
Then: Co-founded Bioware in 1995 with Greg Zeschuk; producer on
Baldur's Gate, and Co-Executive Producer on Shattered Steel,
МОК2, Tales of the Sword Coast, Baldur's Gate ІІ,
Baldur's Gate Il: Throne of Bhaal.
Now: Co-producer on forthcoming Dungeon's & Dragons massively
multiplayer online RPG Neverwinter Nights; Co-producer on
LucasArts’ Xbox Star Wars RPG, Knights of the Old Republic (see
issue 2 of XBN).
Then: Hall has occupied positions as lead programmer, lead designer,
producer and studio director throughout his career. Despite his current
PC focus, he has also worked on console platforms, including N64 and
PlayStation. Previous titles include Star Crusader, Iron and Blood,
Jetfighter Full-Burn, Bass Hunter 64, Ripper and Railroad Tycoon.
Now: Senior Producer for massively multiplayer (and hugely poopular)
RPG, Ultima Online Live.
Then: Schmalz formed Digital Extremes in 1993. Since then he has
supervised the generation of a number of titles, including the best-
selling shareware game Epic Pinball and the niche-but-highly regarded
Extreme Pinball. The Quake-beating Unreal arrived in 1998 and the
multiplayer-focused follow-up Unreal Tournament stormed the PC
charts in 1999.
Now: Spearheading Unreal 2003 for PC, and the Xbox-only broadband
killer-app, Unreal Championship (see page 76).
Then: Zeschuk co-produced all of Bioware past projects (mostly for
now-imploding publisher, Interplay Productions) from RPGs Baldur's
Gate and Shattered Steel to the accomplished platform-shooter
MDK2 and the recent hit Baldur's Gate И.
Now; Co-executive producer for the massively multiplayer online title
Neverwinter Nights and Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic. He
also bears an uncanny resemblance to Ewan McGregor's Obi-Wan in
Episode 2. It's the beard.
The shift from 2D to 3D afforded some
major gameplay changes in video games.
Do you believe broadband will do the
same? Why?_
| Ray Muzyka: | think the potential is definitely there for broadband
to really change how people play both multiplayer and single player
games. This could occur in several different ways: first, with new
` Streaming technologies like Steam or Streamtheory becoming
available, end users might be able to download new content on
demand. The market could be come much more “pull” oriented,
rather than “push” driven.
Greg Thomas: With the introduction of broadband, we will be able
to do so much more than what was accomplished on narrowband—
online leagues, franchises, and tournaments are just the tip of the
iceberg. In my mind, online is the next revolution for sports games.
Rick Hall: The predatory nature of the gaming industry makes every
new technology into a new race... and the more significant the
| technology, the bigger the prize at the end. Ultimately, | believe
broadband will probably prove to be the sort of quantum leap that
drives online gaming to the next level, much like 3D drove graphical
advancements as you mentioned.
Raph Koster: It probably won't have quite the impact that a major
shift in presentation had. After all, it affects the player's experience,
but not as much as what the player literally sees. If you look at what
broadband gets you, it's basically room to shove down more data,
and lower latency.
James Schmalz: When you can count on a large majority (or all) of
your customers having broadband access, as a developer, you can
really start to explore some different gameplay scenarios. For the
most part in the past, multiplayer has been only one part of the game,
an "extra" feature. When games are focused toward multiplayer you
get a much different gameplay experience. You can see that now in
the dedicated multiplayer-only games such as Everquest.
WHAT YOU'LL: SEE BETWEEN
NOU AND THE END ОҒ 2002
WILL BE ITERATIONS ON
THEMES YOU'VE SEEN сєеєсток»
What new gameplay elements can
broadband help introduce that we
haven't already seen?_
James Schmalz: Voice communication is a very exciting aspect of
broadband that may very well be the gameplay leap everyone has
been waiting for with the next-generation systems. And it’s
unquestionable how much downloadable content will change the
face of gaming and the industry. The possibilities really become
endless when you think about it...new character skins, gameplay
modis, entire levels of a game or possibly entire games themselves.
Games will be fun, fresh, and new for much longer períods of time.
LI
29 times, which allows game developers to create games that utilize
By
E FEATURE
Rick Hall: Broadband allows for a vast reduction in download
| constantly growing content. For RPGs especially, this represents a
" tremendous step forward. We can make games that have
continuous storylines that adjust to the way the community plays.
That's an enormous difference from the old way of doing things.
We can add tremendous content to the characters, opponents,
even the world itself. Broadband gives us the ability to be truly
interactive with our storytelling and our game designs.
Greg Thomas: One of the more exciting features in the future will be
full online teams. Imagine the possibilities of composing an entire
team online—my friend in Kansas will be my starting Running Back,
my friend in Wisconsin will be my starting Wide Receiver and | will
be in California starting as Quarterback. (Of course all of the other
positions will be filled out by other friends and we will be able to play
other teams of a similar nature). The possibilities are limitless.
Raph Koster: | think we need to realize, though, that the Internet
can only get so good, can only get so fast, at least for most people.
Broadband is not a panacea. That said, there will be experiences we
can't provide right now that we'll be able to. We'll be able to fit more
people closer together, for example. More players in a single game.
In the case of persistent online environments, we'll have the freedom
to allow much greater modifiability of the environment things like
building structures, changing the landscape, and so on.
the end of 2002, what kind of
online gaming experiences do you think
we
"11 be having? .
ES
Raph Koster What we're going to see by the end of the year is the
Ч 4, beginnings of what | like to call the Great License Invasion. Industry-
" д wide, we're seeing that online games are suddenly being made with
major properties, and there's a bit of a gold rush there to stake out
key properties. This is particularly true in the persistent world
subscription arena, but we've been seeing it with Web-based games
for the last year. This has the real potential to increase the audience
for online worlds significantly.
Warren Spector: If there's anyone out there working on anything
more than prettier versions of what we already have, l'Il be a little
Surprised. There are some folks working on interesting approaches
to content delivery, all made possible by broadband, but in terms of
gameplay? Don't expect a revolution any time soon.
Rick Hall: It takes very large teams and some pretty sophisticated
technology, not to mention a ridiculous amount of money. This
means that it's not financially smart for most developers to dive into
a new technology until they're sure it's got a deep enough market
penetration to justify the expense and effort involved in the attempt
to forge ahead into uncharted waters. | think what you'll see
between now and the end of 2002 will be iterations on themes
you've already seen.
Greg Thomas: By the end of this year, | believe online will still be in
its infancy. | don't believe there will be much more than what we
offered on the Dreamcast this past year.
EJ FEATURE
Greg Thomas: | believe the biggest issue is the slowness in the
penetration of broadband into homes. Broadband needs to be more
accessible and adopted by more people. And once we have enough
How do you see the broadband gaming
experience developing through
2003 and beyond? (Think big!)_
Ray Muzyka: It's quite possible that broadband content delivery
| could become а significant—even the dominant—way for people to
get new games at some point in the next 10 years. When exactly this
will occur (if it occurs) is anyone's guess, but I think it will be subtle at
first; for example, imagine sitting at home, wondering what is on
television, when you realize that you can download the latest game or
expansion pack to a game to your Xbox—broadband could help
make games, like television, an on-demand form of entertainment.
Yuji Naka: The broadband gaming experience will allow gamers to
become more engaged to the games they play because they can be
connected to the network all the time. The possibilities are endless.
Greg Thomas: One of the things | see in the future (way beyond
2003) is always being connected and the ability to always receive
updates from the leagues, whether it is player trades, injuries, real-
time stats, coaching changes, etc. Having these elements real time
as they occur during the actual season will enhance our games to a
new level. This will be complete sports immersion combining real life
action with a video game experience. Sports gamers will love it.
Rick Hall: If we could guarantee a much higher bandwidth—like
broadband— we might be able to have hundreds or even thousands
of characters acting independently in a small area. It would be
possible to be able to participate as a single soldier in the Invasion
of Normandy, or Caesar's Siege on Alesia, for instance. Instead of
having a few dozen characters supported by a bunch of computer
controlled NPCs, the true chaos of thousands of screaming maniacs
running around in an epic battle might be achieved.
ку К 5 j 2 EAE
Rick Hall: Yes, but there are a couple of key differences between PC
games and console games. Obviously, everyone will tell you that tne
console controllers impose a limitation to taking games online. Thís
is probably true, but an advantage consoles have is that they've
waited before jumping online until broadband is more "mainstream."
Thus, when developers finally do start making a large number of
online games for the console, they won't be held back by having to
deal with the legacy issues of narrowband. They'll go straight to
broadband and never look back.
© IMAGINE SITTING АТ
HOME- WONDERING WHAT'S
ON TELEVISION, WHEN YOU
REALIZE THAT YOU CAN
DOWNLOAD THE LATEST
GAME OR EXPANSION PACK
TO YOUR XBOX (muzyka
connections in the homes, the next issue is getting them into the
living rooms—and not just the home office where the PC resides.
Warren Spector: I'm still not completely convinced the world is
ready for online gaming at all. | mean, even the most successful
onlíne games attract followings smaller than the most successful
single-player games. The fans are loyal and they keep paying for
months—even years. That makes online gaming profitable, certainly,
but in terms of sheer numbers, l'm not sure online gaming is The
Future, as a lot of folks seem to think it is. Having said that,
broadband + console could be the thing that puts multiplayer online
gaming over the top. Right now, though, | still think of online gaming
as a very profitable niche, not a mass medium.
Warren Spector: Entertainment tends to be a solitary thing for most
people—if they want to engage in any multiperson diversions after a
hard day at work or at school, it's probably a small group sporting
event or a phone call with a friend. Most people don't rush home
every night to get out the ol’ Monopoly set and gather half a dozen
friends. So why do we expect millions of people to rush home and
participate in a game with 10,000 strangers, many of whom seem
most interested іп cursing and behaving badly? It's all vaguely
mysterious to me.
Rick Hall: I'd say the number one issue is the cost to us, the service
provider. When we make an online game, we have to put together a
pipeline that's enormous. Our largest cost now is bandwidth, and
we're still only dealing with mostly narrowband customers and
games that were designed to support them. If we were to switch to
a broadband-only game (which we'd only do if we had a game
design that truly required it) then obviously our bandwidth costs
would skyrocket. Like it or not, we have to consider the business
ramifications of everything we do.
Raph Koster: The most obvious is adoption. You might get lots of
folks adopting broadband, but that doesn't mean they'll go for
broadband gaming per se. There's got to be a compelling reason to
do it. The hardcore gamers, they're already there. The penetration
rate of broadband among hardcore PC gamers is pretty large
already, and growing steadily. But we know the size of that market,
and it's not that big. So the question becomes, what's the
compelling reason to do broadband gaming if you're the type of
player who enjoys online bridge or Bejeweled?
Peter Molyneux: To start off with, broadband is a very very tough
design problem to crack. These are the problems you've got: Not
only have you different aged people, different cultural peoples in
different time zones, but they've all got different levels of ability. It's
not like playing Quake in the office against someone you know,
where you can decide not to play if they're really good. In design
terms, how do you balance that out? How do those people who play
occasionally get as rewarding an experience as the die-hard nuts?
It's going to need to be subtle. It's going to need to be built into a
game . can't be done on an arena, where | go and there's a
"beginner's league", because nobody wants to play in a f cking
beginner's league. It needs to be behind-the-scenes. Seamless.
What challenges have you faced in 2002
while designing broadband gaming
experiences?_
| James Schmalz: If you have to take into consideration that you
| must support a 14.4k modem, then you are a hell of a lot more
) limited than if you can depend on ALL your users having a fast
broadband connection. So, we are now a lot freer to explore
options that take up more bandwidth. But we do still have to worry
about bandwidth optimizations a great deal as well as latency.
Those are the two major factors you need to keep in mind.
Sylvain Constantin: The main problem is to design an online game
a specific system without having a prior experience on this system,
and without having any other games already running online.
Technical specifications can change through development, so we
have to anticipate, and be ready to quickly adapt our game to any
change. And finally despite the broadband promises, it should be
wise (required?) to be compatible with narrowband game systems.
Raph Koster: In 2002 lm not designing a broadband-specific
gaming experience. The large market that I’m designing for doesn't
all have broadband, and therefore Рт not designing to that platform.
If you are trying to reach more than the hardcore PC action gamers,
you can't limit yourself to those with cable modems or DSL.
BROADBAND UILL BRING US
ONE STEP CLOSER TO THAT
HOLY GRAIL KNOUN AS
VIRTUAL REALITY cuatro
We've had narrowband online gaming on the
PC for some years пош. How will broadband
be differenti in your opinion?_
л Біск Hall: Broadband will give us the ability to eventually allow
EVERYTHING to be controlled by the players. It will allow them to
communicate much more effectively through spoken word,
customized avatars, and their own personalities. Broadband will
bring us one step closer to that Holy Grail known as "Virtual Reality."
James Schmalz: You can pass voice as well as more data. You can
make more complex situations work whereas with narrowband you
needed to keep things very simple. You could only have so many
projectíles or so many people on the screen. One good example is
that we can simulate vehicle physics realistically and smoothly in а
network game. This is complex enough that it would be very difficult
to do in narrowband.
Peter Molyneux: We've always thought of games as something you
download and that is it. With broadband there's this ability to change
the game constantly. It's no longer a fixed game. This world or game
that we've created can be a lot bigger than it is to begin with.
Because we do design things to fit on a DVD at the moment- and
that's very limited. When you've got broadband, suddenly that goes
away, You've got an infinite amount of space and an infinite amount
of content to push forward. It's going to be a totally new genre.
E) FEATURE
Greg Zeschuk: On platforms like the Xbox people will never be
exposed to the pain of narrowband they're going to jump right to a
nice, fat connection. Everyone is going to have a better experience
as a result of this and the audience should grow very fast. Playing
across a broadband connection when everything is working well is a
totally flawless experience (provided the game is well-made)—
players are going to love what they find online.
Sylvain Constantin: The possibility to compete with six billion
people! Not all games are designed for global competition, but I
think online gaming as a "virtual" sport will become more and more
popular. It's very exciting. My dream is that through online games,
people could become professional players, solo or in teams
(depending of the game) and earn their "lives" by playing. These
virtual sports will become more and more popular (there are already
TV shows in Korea for video games competitions), and | think that
one day, Quake-like championship will become as popular as the
“real world" soccer World Cup.
Raph Koster: You're thinking in terms of releasing authorship, rather
than expressing yourself. Online games are about other people,
really, and the mechanics need to reflect that. This manifests itself in
lots of ways, ranging from the “modding” community that has
sprung up around first person shooter games, to the extremely
undirected experiences that massively multiplayer games provide,
where narratives are largely absent. This in particular is alien to a lot
of game designers.
James Schmalz: It's a totally different mindset. The biggest
difference is that in a single player game you are the hero. You are
the main character in the story. So scenarios can be predicted. In a
multiplayer game everyone still wants to be the hero, or at the very
least everyone wants to have the ability or chance to become the
hero, making the gameplay possibilities endless and completely
unpredictable.
Greg Zeschuk: With online games your goal is to attract and then
retain ап audience 一 you need to make датев with longevity that
give players a reason to keep coming back. Online games require
more content if they involve any aspect of exploration. If they involve
a competitive mode it has to be better not only than all the games
currently available, but all the games coming down the pipe.
Rick Hall: With online games, we have to deal with the fact that
some people use the anonymity provided by the Internet as
justification to harass their fellow gamers. They go out of their way to
destroy the experience of everyone around them. Dealíng with this
from within the game's design is considerably more difficult than you
might imagine, but it has to be done. A single troublesome player
can drive away hundreds of subscribers.
хам 073 》
E) FEATURE
Rick Hall: | think it would be incredibly fun to build a game where I
could be a pilot on a starfighter, but part of a much larger military
conflict. This kind of game is probably still a few years from being
possible. Of course, broadband would help in being able to have
hundreds of other fighters blasting away at each other, not to
mention being able to talk during the battle to my other squadron
members, and hear orders from a base commander somewhere.
Imagine if there were huge capital ships flying around out there, and
my job was to protect them, seek-and-destroy the enemy capital
ships, and explore the universe. | guarantee you if someone makes a
game like that, ІЛІ be the first one in line to buy a
microphone/headset, joystick, foot pedals, and anything else | need
in order to play.
Warren Spector: Га like to be able to play with friends scattered all
around the country and all around the world. I'd like sufficient tools
to interact with them in ways that didn't feel forced or—a chat line
with pretty pictures just doesn't cut it. Га like all of this in the context
of a narrative that's rícher and more varied than the typical fantasy or
Sci-fi scenario. | mean, killing monsters and goíng on random quests
if all well and good but how about something more? Not too much
to ask, is it? We're pretty close to providing that experience already.
Yuji Naka: My ultimate online gaming experience would be a game
that allows you to experience virtual senses through the network, not
with television as a medium. You would not only be able to hear,
see and feel, but also even taste and smell.
, Ray Muzyka: PC MMORPGs - Star Wars Galaxies, Worlds of
Warcraft, and Earth and Beyond, for example. There are many,
many more MMORPGs in development now and we want all of -
them to succeed but unfortunately the market is probably only large
enough for a few of these to thrive at any one time. As well, it will
be interesting to see games like Final Fantasy XI to see what console
fans think of the MMORPG on the video game console.
Greg Thomas: Halo 2 because Halo was so awesome and yet being
online will make it that much better. Fever 2003 just to see if they are
able to innovate much with online gameplay.
Raph Koster: The Sims Online, certainly, in order to see what
, acceptance a more social model of online world gets from the
gaming market. It's going to be interesting to see what proportion of
the extremely casual Sims audience chooses to pay a subscription
fee, for example. And beyond that, the game is such an empowering
platform that | am very curious to see what users make of it. | am
likewise very curious about the work being done over at Linden Labs
[lindenworld.com]. for similar reasons.
I DON'T THINK THE NEXT
GREAT GAME IS GOING TO
BE BASED IN A FANTASY
WORLD cnoryneux>
What genre of video games has the most
Sylvain Constantin: | think that some kind of global virtual world, potential with regards to broadband
recreating a better clone of our world, and in which anything gaming? Uhy?
possible in real life (and more...) would be possible, would be EL
absolutely fantastic.
Greg Thomas: The opportunity to have a unique playing experience
every single time online with multiple players would be the ultimate
challenge. Even more than just playing, we are managing the entire
team, making all the decisions, playing all of the games and
essentially having our “own NFL"-so to speak. We may even decide
to change rules or other elements in the game to make it more fun.
This would be an incredible gaming experience that would be so
addicting to me. | don't think | would get any work done...| would
play all day long.
Greg Thomas: Definitely sports games because they are so much
better online. Being able to play against millions of different people is
Such a better experience than having to play against the computer.
People do crazy, smart, stupid, exciting things that we just can not
program into our АІ. This is why sports games online will be
revolutionary.
Warren Spector: If you buy my contention that online gaming is a
(big) niche rather than a mass-market proposition, you have to look
to the roleplaying games for the core audience. But, really, it seems
like sports games offer immense possibilities that, as far as | know,
have been dramatically underexploited, both creatively and from a
business standpoint. (Again, if anyone out there is actively working
on a league-based, individual-player-level, basketball game, and
you're looking for testers, give me a holler.)
What online games are you most looking
forward to seeing: and why?_
л Rick Hall: Aside from the hope that someone will make my
starfighter game, I'd also like to see someone make a persistent
RTS. RTS games are lots of fun, but if someone were to create a
^ system that allowed me to accumulate gains over time, that would
add an extra dimension.
Warren Spector: Star Wars Galaxies. | know the guys making it,
know their ambitions and l've seen some of their stuff. And it's Star
Wars, for crying out loud. | don't know if anyone's working on such a
thing but an online basketball game where each onscreen player
was played by an offscreen one, with league play and all... that
would totally rock. | might lose myself in a game like that.
Rick Hall: Atmosphere and immersiveness being the biggest
benefactors to broadband, | think it makes sense that RPGs will be
the big winners. They are highly dependent on realistic
atmospheres, and would be the types of games that would benefit
most from having large crowds in small places.
Peter Molyneux: | don't think the next great game is going to be
based in a fantasy world. | don't think it's going to be elves versus
goblins in some space-future-freaky weird place. | think it will be set
in a far more real and contemporary world. | think it will almost
certainly be something to do with violence, in the first-person.
If there's one thing that's
been conspicuously
lacking from the Xbox
broadband story it's buzz; an
unfortunate consequence of a tight-
lipped, round-the-houses approach
to public relations from Microsoft
and a necessarily long gestation
period for the network.
By the time you read this, the E3
show would have been and probably
gone, and the Xbox broadband plans
common knowledge, scattered to the
four winds of the Internet. What's
likely to headline the whole shooting
match is- well, the whole shooting
match that is Unreal Championship.
Until now, details of the game have
been in short supply. Now Digital
Extremes founder and director James
Schmalz speaks exclusively to XBN
+... e
about the game charged with making
Xbox Live a global success.
Xbox Nation: Please describe the
online components of UC and how
they work.
James Schmalz: You will be able to
quickly get into a multiplayer match
with just a few button clicks. You will
be able to communicate through your
Communicator headset and talk to
other players. You will also be able to
download new content for the game
such as new maps, new game types
and new characters. These are
probably the biggest online
components of UC.
XBN: How will we connect to the
service? Will you have an “Xbox
Live” button on the main menu of
the game?
Schmalz: It will be seamless for the
user, other than simply selecting the
multiplayer menu option. Once you go
in there, you will be able to setup and
configure your online character and
then select the kinds of games you
want to play. It will be incredibly easy
to use.
. XBN: What is your opinion of the
Microsoft broadband strategy?
What aspects of it make broadband
gaming easy, and what aspects are
challenging for you as developers?
Schmalz: Their strategy is excellent
and will deliver a fantastic online
experience. The great thing for
E) FEATURE
gamers is that, other than doing a
quick and easy configuration of your
Xbox for getting it hooked up online,
playing a game like UC will be
incredibly simple for you. Just as
easy as starting a single player game.
We don't want people to abandon
the online portion because it's too
difficult to understand or takes too
long to get online. Our goal and
Microsoft's goal is to make it as easy
and fun as possible.
XBN: It was leaked in the United
Kingdom that UC would have a fee
for online play. Will you be charging
for UC online?
Schmalz: As far as we're concerned
there isn't a subscription fee for
Unreal Championship specifically. No
XBN 075 9
EI FEATURE
The environments in Unreal Championship are varied and stunning in their realism. The game has
been designed to harness many of the Xbox graphics chip's custom features, such as bump-
mapping, specular highlighting, self-shadowing, and pixel shading.
one involved on the publishing or
development side (that is Infogrames,
Digital Extremes or Epic Games) will
be charging to play this game online.
Microsoft has indicated there may be
a service fee to subscribe to the Xbox
Online service, but no fees specific to
UC. But that said, there is a very
strong single-player element to UC, so
you can play the entire game without
subscribing to the Xbox online service
at all if you wish.
XBN: Not that it really matters
much, but is there a plot?
Schmalz: In the future an alien race
has enslaved humanity and several
other alien races. Much like the
ancient Roman gladiator battles, this
overlord race forces the best humans
076 хвм
апа other enslaved races to compete
in similar gladiator battles. Your goal is
simple—to win and be the best. We
have over 50 characters composed of
six different species on six different
worlds. We have a huge range of
locations from a frozen tundra level to
a molten lava level.
XBN: How will the online game
differ from the single-player
experience?
Schmalz: You will be able to select
from a large variety of different game
configurations. You can host your own
game or join into any of the multitude
of other games. We will have a
ranking system so you can see how
you rate against every other player.
We have tons of different game types,
Digital Extremes have worked hard to make the NPC ‘bots’ ‘as lifelike in their splaying style as
possible. The end result should be that the 'single-player' experience is almost as good as the
multiplayer online game (minus the fun of using the Xbox Communicator).
and game mutators and game
configurations. There is plenty of
variety to play however you enjoy
playing the most.
XBN: Will you be able to play the
single-player "story" over the
network with 16 player
co-operative play?
Schmalz: The story is very secondary
to the gameplay. The focus of our
single-player game is to make it as
enjoyable as the multiplayer and as
similar as possible to the multiplayer
element of the game. Our enemy Al or
‘bots’ have evolved over the last six
years to be what we think are the
most human-like bots in any game.
So, the main separation between
single player and multiplayer is the
fact you are playing against bots, but
it is just as enjoyable at fighting real
people. In fact, many people have
commented on how difficult it is to tell
the difference between the bots and a
real human player.
XBN: What kind of environments
can we expect to see?
Schmalz: We are trying hard to make
each arena unique, interesting and as
varied as possible. We have sprawling
outdoor terrain levels and tight,
confined one-on-one dungeon-style
deathmatch levels. The key for us is
variety. Several of the worlds we have
created include a desert planet, ice
planet, volcanic lava planet, and an
alien-built artificial planet.
Essential Purchase:_
XBOX COMMUNICATOR
Free when you subscribe to Xbox Live, Microsoft's headset may leave you
looking like a cross between Lance Bass and a Navy Seal (N' Sunk?) but the
payoff will be worth it. You'll be able to speak to your teammates in Unreal
and Ghost Recon, and shout abuse at your opponents in Whacked! Games
will eventually support for voice recognition, allowing you to issue game
commands to change weapons, check inventory, or use items. As an added
incentive to sound silly as well as look it, the Communicator can also alter
your voice in a variety of ways. Xbox Nation has heard the future, and it
sounds like Greg Orlando doing Darth Vader... (Oh, wait, that didn't come out
right at all).
XBN: Is there one that's your
particular favorite?
Schmalz: Not really. | have no one
specific favorite at the moment. All
the levels are evolving over the
weeks as they get refined and
adjusted. | do love the ones that are
so visually spectacular that they look
like movie sets, such as a level
called DM-Core. It looks as if you're
running through the corridors of a
set in one of the Alien movies.
XBN: The graphics are particularly
impressive. What in particular are
you most proud of in this respect?
Schmalz: | think probably the variety
of locales. It would be easy enough
for us to just make one style and
| PEOPLE HAVE COMMENTED
ON HOW DIFFICULT IT
15 TO TELL THE
DIFFERENCE BETWEEN
THE BOTS AND A REAL
HUMAN PLAYER
(SCHMALZ)
duplicate it 30 times, but we put a
huge amount of effort into making
each arena as unique and different
as possible. Certainly we have some
with similar themes, but within each
of those we strive for a unique look.
And the graphical power of the Xbox
allows us to make scenes that are
literally 100 times more complex
than anything we've done before.
XBN: What kind of support will you
be providing to players online?
Leagues? New missions? Easter-
eggs?
Schmalz: We will have ranking and
stats. Certainly downloadable levels
and other content. We would love to
support Leagues and Tournaments!
Features are still under wraps, but the Holy
Grail of football game, according the Sega's
Greg Thomas, is to make each team
position human-controlled.
Squad-based combat, in the for of Ghost
Recon, should suffice until Halo 2 arrives
some time next year.
Microsoft is taking the usually staid mech
genre into the realm of the arcade shooter
with its amped-up Mech Assault.
— _ «(72.5 2,
There's a limit to how many ‘whacky’ games
one console can sustain. Microsoft may
have reached, and breached that limit with
Whacked!
E FEATURE
NFL Fever
Microsoft's own bid to steal the
coveted Madden football crown
goes online this fall in the shape of a
new NFL Fever. There are no details
yet, but you can count on Sega's
NFL 2K series on Dreamcast being a
big influence. Rumors persist,
however, that fans of NFL 2K will
have to wait, as Microsoft is keen to
give its own game the home
advantage by being the only football
title offered on the Live network.
Ghost Recon
Red Storm's Tom Clancy tactical
FPS is another surefire hit for the
Xbox Live service. Widely regarded
as one of the best games ever on
PC, the Xbox version sports 10
multiplayer maps in addition to its
15 single-player missions, and
supports up to 16 players. The
game is also armed with enemy Al
that had even the Halo team
marvelling at the recent Game
Developers Conference.
Mech Assault
Created by the minds behind
another successful PC franchise,
Mech Warrior, Assault replaces the
sim elements with arcade shooter
DNA. Players take control of fast,
maneuverable "Mechs" from a third-
person perspective and blast the
nuts and bolts out of each other
over destructible cityscapes. Mech
Assault supports matchmaking,
buddy lists, live chat, creepy voice
augmentation and game swapping.
Whacked!
Some games were meant to be
online, and none perhaps more so
than the wacky Whacked!
Microsoft's four-player frag-fest
though something of a lame duck in
single-player, will provide comic
relief for the Xbox Live crowd over
the network. No word yet on any
special features, but this is fertile
ground for expansion packs, new
comedy-levels and downloadable
characters and weapons.
XBN 077 9
premier event
in the world of
XRAIED
Smart Reviews
HUNTER: THE RECHOnInG
Blow off some steam. And some zombie heads.
The most exciting aspect of
video game development is
the forging of virgin ground;
crafting original gameplay pardigms,
birthing new genres, and inspiring
evolutionary approaches to the man-
ner in which we interact with the
images on our screen.
Development is also, however, a
forum in which to refine the art of killing
the sh*t out of like six billion zombies,
trampling their corpses, and staining
your skin with their blackened blood.
Enter Hunter: The Reckoning.
From its gruesome opening moments
to its savage final boss, Hunter is sheer,
unadulterated, cathartic violence. It
harkens back to the days when we'd
spend entire days dropping quarters into
the local Gauntlet coin-op machine, and
entire nights beating Golden Axe six
times over on our Sega Genesis. It un-
abashedly foregoes trivial details such as
"a coherent story" and "varied forms of
gameplay” in favor of turning lots of
undead zombies into lots of dead un-
dead zombies with the help of your trusty
boomstick. And it does so with the sort
of graceful control and visual panache
that we haven't seen since the 16-bit era.
What makes Hunter so compelling is
the tactile simplicity of its hack ’n’ slash
(n' shoot) gameplay. Puzzles are few and
far between, and those that do crop up
are mostly of the "find a key/use it to
open a door" variety. What the game
boils down to is a series of unreasonably
lopsided battles between you and end-
less hordes of bloodthirsty monsters. The
1 à FREE variety of moves (and the bounty of ene-
Enjoy the pain? Crave the violence? You mies upon which to employ them)
need some Hunter, we reckon. provides the game's depth; cutting a
zombie's arms and head off with a
machete, and then blowing a shotgun
hole directly through its armless/headless
corpse while cartwheeling out of its path
never grows tiresome. Freedom of move-
ment is another key; characters are able
to move and fire in independent direc-
tions using the dual analog sticks, á la
Smash TV. Quite simply, this is a more
organic approach to the genre than con-
strained turn/shoot/turn/shoot monotony.
While it's not pushing any technical
boundaries, Hunter was designed for the
Xbox hardware—and it shows. Character
models are sharp and defined, impres-
sive environmental effects permeate the
well-drawn locales, and dozens of ene-
mies simultaneously fill the screen
without slowdown. The context-sensitive
$ 080 XBN
ШЕ Police Cops Homer Simpson and Lance Kaufman star in their most gory adventure to date. And
boy, will the chief's face be red after his skin's been pulled off...
Despite its rough edges, Hunter: The
Reckoning is an early contender
for dark horse of the year ...
music elegantly swells from provocative
ambient soundscapes to cinematic
crescendos, and enemies are both varied
and suitably nasty. Aesthetically, Hunter
Succeeds on nearly every level.
Often, however, the game's conces-
Sions to realism feel random and
contrived. Small touches are nice (like
animations for your character sheathing
his sword, then reaching back and
pulling out a shotgun), but preventing the
player from accessing certain areas via
"invisible walls" is lamer than jock itch.
Multiplayer mode presents its share of
problems as well; the difficulties inherent
in a fully 3D camera quickly become
apparent, and you'll find yourself doing
the running man up against the edge of
the screen quite regularly.
But these are minor flaws. Despite its
rough edges, Hunter is an early con-
tender for dark horse of the year. Its
difficulty curve progresses gracefully, its
atmosphere is immersive, and its visceral
punch is straight to the gut.
Evan Shamoon
> Eight out of Ten
XRATED
Smart Reviews
Dev : Digital Mayhem
Pub : Interplay
Players : 1-4
Gimme Gimme : Violence
Release Date : Out Now
Ш The collection and conservation of magic adds another element to Hunter's simple gameplay
dynamic. It also shows off the game's real-time light sourcing to stunning effect.
Sir Diesalot
Like The Who said, "It's very, very, very, very hard." The game, that is.
One thing about Hunter: The
Reckoning you may not be prepared
for is that it's hard...very hard.
Fortunately, this difficulty does not
stem from troublesome controls or a
seizure-prone camera. Rather, it's the
BILLIONS UPON BILLIONS OF ZOM-
BIES TRYING TO KILL YOU AT
EVERY TURN. Enemies are so
numerous and powerful that every
single lost life counts, which means
lots of restarting from earlier save
points in order to win. Death be not
proud in Hunter, but all too common.
₪ ProTip: Resist the temptation to "negotiate"
with the zombies. Instead, slay them.
XBN 081 》
With great power comes the great responsibility to punch robots in their stupid robot faces
whenever possible. Here, Spider-Man punches robots in their stupid robot faces.
Now you may be asking yourself,
*Just what the heck is Spider-Man
swinging from?" Well, to be honest,
he seems to be swinging from the sky.
It's okay though, because it's just a
video game based upon a comic
character who is, in fact, not real. Just
keep swinging, kid, and try not to look
downward. Or let go ...
Excelsior! Translated from
the Latin, the word means
"still higher," and has
become the catch phrase for what's
now accepted as the Mighty Marvel
Universe. It's also the philosophy
driving Activision and its develop-
ment arm Treyarch to create bigger
and better games featuring supermen
in super-tight longjohns.
On a spider's web the 3D adventure
Spider-Man soars still higher. It's the
most ambitious Spider-Man game to
date, taking the wall-crawler across
gorgeous New York skylines, and pit-
ting him against a collection of
black-hearted knaves straight from the
comic books. As with any heroic tale,
there's some stumbling along the way
as well as a few reversals that serve to
gum the engine—but in the end Spider-
Man, as rendered by Treyarch, really
does whatever a spider can. And that's
a quite a feat.
Spider-Man uses the plot of the
Spider-Man movie as its launching pad.
Players take the role of hero Peter
Parker as he dons the tights to become
Spider-Man and attempts to squash the
villainy of the Green Goblin; the story is
fleshed out by the addition of such cos-
Spider-Man, as rendered by Treyarch,
really does whatever a spider
can. And that's quite a feat.
$ 082 XBN
You'll believe a man can Пу--ог at least soar across the New York City skyline оп a few strands of
faux spider's web.
tumed cruds as Kraven the Hunter, the
Vulture, the Shocker, and the Scorpion.
Actors Tobey Maguire and Willem Dafoe
provide the voices for Spider-Man and
the Goblin, respectively, and Bruce
Campbell (he of Evil Dead fame) pitches
in as the game's smarmy narrator.
With all of Spider-Man's powers
intact, players are afforded a great deal
of freedom as to how to tackle most of
the game's missions. Old web-head can
crawl on walls, creep across ceilings,
and take a flying leap off a building,
plummeting for a bit before firing off a
web line to swing on. Spider-Man can
also use his tremendous agility to per-
form special kick-and-punch
combinations on hapless enemies, or
paralyze foes by wrapping them up in
webbing. While attached to a ceiling,
our hero can drop directly onto an
enemy's head and administer a bit of
strict justice while the stricken sap
dashes about in a panic.
A brand-new feature allows Spider-
Man to fight while web-swinging, and
the levels featuring Spidey duking it out
with the Vulture and the Green Goblin
are simply superb. A lock-on feature,
which is equal parts curse and cure-all,
allows players to select an airborne
enemy at will; once chosen, the camera
shifts to (hopefully) show both Spider-
Man and his prey. Though it's initially
hard to determine what's going on
during the game's aerial fights, the
stunning vistas and jackhammer adren-
aline rushes elicited by these scenes
more than make up for any deficiencies.
A temperamental camera flips and
jumps with great frequency, and helps
to sink some of the game's indoor-
based levels. Simply, the camera is not
very good at choosing where to go
when Spider-Man attaches himself to a
wall or ceiling and this, coupled with a
rather unforgiving difficulty level, turns
frantic moments into frustrating, punch-
the-wall extravaganzas. While storming
a rickety bell tower that the Vulture's
claimed as his hideout, players will be
treated to a stomach-turning series of
camera jerks; as the Vulture hurls end-
less waves of grenades and Spider-Man
is mercilessly pursued by various explo-
sive devices, the camera itself functions
as a de facto enemy—and possibly the
deadliest one of all.
Greg Orlando
=) Seven out of Te
Е Fun Fact: Spider-Man once had his own "Spider-Mobile." The writer who thought that gem up went
on to be ridiculed by his peers and later died in a puddle of his own bitter tears.
XRATED
Smart Reviews
Dev : Treyarch
Pub : Activision
Players : 1
Web: Entangled
Release Date : Out Now
Once, when Marvel Comics let chim-
panzees write its comics, Spider-Man
met his clone. Readers wondered
"Could things get any more stupid?"
The answer was yes, and Marvel
dragged "The Clone Saga" out for
years until readers forced the restora-
tion of the one, true Spider-Man. Now
let us never speak of this again.
XBN 083 >
XRATED
Smart Reviews
WORLD SERIES BRSEBRLL
Sports Illustrated reporter Jeff Pearlman finds tao in the Yankee Stadium bleachers
₪ There would be joy іп Mudville if the
Mudville Nine were included in World
Series Baseball.
$ 084 XBN
In my five-plus years as a
baseball writer, | have
covered, oh, 20 or so games
at Tropicana Field, home of the putrid
Tampa Bay Devil Rays. With its
greenish-gray backdrop and
half-empty stands, Florida's largest
dome is, in a word, horrific. Some
call the stadium baseball's largest
tuna fish can. | call it unregulated
indoor crap. To watch the Rays in
Tampa is to induce oneself into a
Legends Of The Fall-sized coma.
This, alas, is my number one reason
World Series Baseball is the best sports
video game of all time. Despite its
kickin’ graphics, vast pitch selections,
and endless buffet of batting stances,
| still got bored playing at the (virtual)
Trop. It is a sucky building in real life,
and in the gaming world it bites even
more. Bravo.
If realism is the ultimate goal of the
game maker, then World Series
Baseball is the Mona Lisa of games. In
the sixth inning of a Rangers-Reds con-
test, a bird flies above second base.
Not for any real reason—just because
birds tend to do such things. Nestled
behind the outfield wall of Comerica
Park are the buildings of downtown
Detroit (stumbling crackheads not
included). As he waits for the pitch to
arrive, Padres outfielder Ray Lankford’s
knee twitches and his bat twirls. At the
plate, Boston’s Jason Varitek wears a
shin protector on his right leg. San
Francisco righthander Livan Hernandez
throws a nasty sinker that eats
righthanded hitters up, Detroit
righthander Steve Sparks’ knuckleball
is as unpredictable as a WWF Storyline,
and Pedro Martinez’ fastball shakes
and jumps like Emmanuel Lewis after
three beers. It is, at 97 mph, unhittable.
Best of all, the game plays beautiful-
ly and with conviction. Roger Cedeno
gets good jumps and steals bases with
relative ease. Jason Giambi does not.
Roger Clemens’ fastball hums at 95
mph with pinpoint accuracy. Brian
Mohler is a bum. Righthanded hitters
fare better off lefthanded pitches (and
vice versa). Stick Orioles catcher Brook
Fordyce behind the plate and he's rock
solid. Move him to shortstop, and the
Es never stop.
| was happy to find that World
Series Baseball hardly requires a
Master’s Degree in Hand-Held
Controller Robotics. Everything is very
Ja. Giambi
№ Here's an interesting picture: Pedro Martinez was the spokesman for the lame World Series Baseball
2K1 and World Series Baseball 2K2. Jason Giambi is the spokesman for World Series Baseball.
If realism is the ultimate goal of the
game maker, then World Series
Baseball is the Mona Lisa of games.
simple and clean, and with the click of
the "Start" button—lest one forgets—
there's an on-screen diagram
explaining which button does what.
Indeed, despite our limited IQs, after
no more than 10 minutes of goofing
around my wife and І found ourselves
locked in one of those epic clashes
you'll be reading about 50 years from
now. | was the Royals. She was the
Cubs. The stadium was the
Metrodome. The final score: 12-3. She,
uh, won.
Complaints? Only a couple. There is
a team of Hall of Famers who look
nothing like Hall of Famers (unless Yogi
Berra was once tall, with Clark Gable
features). A pitcher can plunk 856
batters in a row and receive nary a
warning. The instant replays are
ridiculously awkward. And Florida
rightfielder Kevin Millar is nowhere to
be found.
But fret not. World Series Baseball
kicks ass. Just stay away from domes.
Jeff Pearlman
=) | Nine out
XRATED
Smart Reviews
Dev: Blue Shift/Visual Concepts
Pub: Sega
Players: 1-2
World: Serious
Release Date: Out Now
Ichiro RF
AVG: .350 HR: 8 RBI: 69
As a New Yorker, | have visited
crumbling Shea Stadium more than
100 times, and—except for the
ubiquitougierazy drunk guy in Section
С, Row 206 gating a hot dog and
bragging about the day he said hello
to Junior Ortiz —World Series
Baseball's Shea is an exact replica.
The scoreboard. The skyline. The big
№ The screens tell the story: Sega has made up for its past two years of baseball mediocrity with red apple behind the rightfield wall.
what may be the finest baseball game we've ever played. Bravo. Even the dimensions. Perfect.
“Y Help
271177
XBN 085 》
BLOOD OMEN ІІ
Things got messy after Kain decided to forego the collection human souls, instead taking advan-
tage of “All-you-can-eat Shrimp Mania” at Red Lobster.
As Kain hunts down and slays fellow
vampires, he rudely slurps away their
special abilities, known as Dark Gifts.
Sadly, most of these powers, such as
Telekinesis, are merely superficial;
assuming the form of Mist, Mind
Control, and Immolation actually just
help our once-proud King of the
Undead flip switches or push crates.
$ 086 XBN
The original Blood Omen:
Legacy of Kain was atmos-
pheric and neatly crafted,
getting by as much on style as sub-
stance. It was, arguably, the most
interesting 2D game the PlayStation
ever offered. The years since have
seen the Soul Reaver spin-offs, but
Blood Omen 2 brings the vampire
hero Kain himself into the three-
dimensional 215t century. It's a safe
bet that if you enjoyed the previous
games you'll like this one too. Others
may need a little convincing.
Taking place 200 years after Blood
Omen, Omen 2 finds Kain waking up
from a vampire coma. The powerful
Sarafan Lord has stolen Kain's empire
and his fabled sword, the Soul Reaver,
and vampires are being systematically
hunted down by the Sarafan's minions.
However, a small rebel group has
revived Kain in an effort to fight back—
and Kain, of course, has his sights set
on ruling the world again.
Gameplay is a mix of beat-‘em-up
action and puzzle solving, and the
graphics are a cut above average —
much better than in the PlayStation 2
version, at any rate. It's generally atmos-
pheric, with nicely varied level designs
and a few gory surprises. It looks, in
fact, almost exactly like the original ren-
dered in 3D; even Kain's trademark
"projectile blood suck," which enables
him to drain victims from a surprising
Above, bottom: Kain's early attempts to build
a notepad holder in wood shop went horribly
awry and many were killed.
distance, has been retained. Overall,
however, it must be said that the game
is good looking without really being any-
thing spectacular.
The control is fairly crisp and respon-
sive; in combat each different weapon
Kain picks up has a different set of
attack moves, and blocks actually fol-
low the strikes of each combo. This
doesn't exactly keep the fighting from
getting repetitive, but that's been a
problem with every beat-'em-up since
Double Dragon, so you can't really find
much fault there.
Over the course of the game Kain
earns a number of Dark Gifts, from
blending into the mists to setting oppo-
nents on fire with his mind. These
powers are (mostly) pretty cool, but
Obscure reference number one: "Not the
craw! The craw!"
BO2 is not big on exploration. The lev-
els are completely linear, and every
puzzle has exactly one way to solve it—
to the point where, on occasion, a Dark
Gift simply won't work if it's not the one
you're supposed to use. Still, this also
means it's impossible to get lost, and in
general it's just challenging enough to
keep you interested without becoming
frustrating. In fact, the only real problem
with the design is that continue points
are either placed pointlessly close
together or maddeningly far apart—a
small knock, but a significant one.
However, as with the original, BO2
[Omen 2] is generally atmos-
pheric, with nicely varied level
designs and a few gory surprises ...
gets by as much on style as it does оп
substance. The storyline rambles a bit,
but takes a lot of twists and turns, and
the characters are engaging. The dia-
logue is, admittedly, rife with clichés,
and at one or two points it's just shy of
eye-rolling. On the upside, the voice
acting is uniformly excellent, and so in
spite of the dialogue you buy into it any-
way 一 although Kain's “Flaye Victus!"
battle cry is conspicuously missing.
Blood Omen 2 is definitely not for the
squeamish, but if you're looking for a
cold, ruthless, and literally bloodthirsty
antihero to keep you occupied for 15-20
hours, Kain definitely fits the bill.
Jeff Lundrigan
e) Seven
XRATED
Smart Reviews
Dev : Eidos
Pub : Crystal Dynamics
Players : 1
Bloody: Goodness
Release Date : Out Now
Ш Thanks to great textures and nice architecture, many of Kain’s environments look superb. Тһе
animation system, however, could use a bit of polish.
One really odd thing about Blood Omen 2 is that the boss battles
are sort of inversely difficult. Faustus, the first boss, arguably takes
the longest to beat—not because he's especially tough, but
because you have to use puzzle solving as well as combat skills (or
simply find ways of using combat skills differently than you would
with lesser minions).
In fact, each boss battle is divided up into three stages, and after
a time you simply get used to looking for ways to use Kain's Dark
Gifts while dodging the boss' attacks, until by the end, the final
boss is actually a bit of a snap. This isn't a good or bad thing,
incidentally—just odd.
XBN 087 9
XRATED
Smart Reviews
RALLISPORT CHALLENGE
My other Rally game’s a Sega
If Rallisport Challenge found
| itself in the unlikely position
of sharing an arcade with
Sega Rally, it would probably cough
up just a few coins at days end, while
Sega's mud-covered classic gently
tipped to one side, eventually spilling
quarters all over the floor like a fresh
haul of shrimp. And then the shrimp
would play Sega Rally too.
It's not the most glowing introduc-
tion, but then Rallisport Challenge
doesn't give you one either. With a nod
to real-world rallying, RC has you driv-
ing solo on long tracks in Hill Climb and
traditional Rally modes, competing
against your opponent's time rather
than his car. It's uninspiring at first, but
eventually you begin reading the little
gauge in the top left of your screen. It
splits the course up into blocks and
matter-of-factly turns them red or green
as you pass checkpoints, indicating
whether you exceeded or fell short of
your opponent's "ghost" time. The ten-
Sion mounts when you're three blocks
into a course, they're all red, and you
have just three to go—you'd better not
James Dean that next bend. Out of
nowhere, what seemed like a passion-
less toil becomes a red-hot race—and
what seemed like just another average
rally game grows wings and takes off.
There's more traditional head-to-
head racing too, in the Rallycross and
Ice Racing championships (and multi-
player split-screen if you're in the
mood), and the cleverly programmed Al
cars are always just tough enough to
give you a decent workout.
If Rallisport fails on any level at all,
it's the personality test. Overly long and
unimaginative tracks punctuate the
wide selection of courses and it's
impossible to know them all well
enough to become fond of their
individual traits.
It's all right, though, because even if
you can't remember every bend and
jump in every course, you'll be happy
enough just staring—shrimp-like—out
of the window as you pass. Rallisport
Out of nowhere, what seems like a
passionless toil becomes a
red-hot race ...
Digital Illusion’s graphics engine
renders sunsets as if it were designed
for that particular purpose. Watching
the replays is like being stuck in a
Nissan ad.
« 088 хвм
comes within a hairsbreadth of photore-
alism, and on your first go round on the
Mediterranean tracks you'll throw a
couple of races by pulling over on the
edge of a mountain pass to stare at the
Kodak-moment sunsets.
Digital Illusion's mix of arcade power-
slide-physics and realistic courses
means that it will take more than a few
races before you warm to its many
charms. What begins as an object
lesson in patience pays progressively
bigger dividends as you conquer each
championship—not just with new cars
№ There's no such car as a Peugeot in this
country. It means "plump cat" in Europe.
Dev : Digital Illusions
Pub : Microsoft
Players : 1-4
Bump: mapping
Release Date : Out Now
(though there are enough) and tracks
(there are 45 of them), but with some-
thing far better: pride. It comes from
building a career in the game over many
days and nights where the races get
tougher and the margin for error shrinks
to nothing before eventually demanding
a next-level commitment that you have
to dig deep to supply.
Simon Cox
= | Eight out of Ten
№ Reflections, wheels that are actually round,
and beautiful skies. Ahhh, yes.
rm
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AD INDEX
Acclaim Entertainment 13, 23, 29, 32-33
Electronic Arts 78, 110-111
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Sega of America 25
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Smart Reviews
ALL-STAR BASEBALL 2003
All-Star Baseball has one thing
going for it, but that one thing is
golden: You can seriously maim peo-
ple. In three innings against the
Cleveland Indians, | hit 15 players in
the head with 95-mph fastballs. Nine
suffered broken ribs (admittedly, an
odd reaction to a ball in the noggin).
The other six just limped over to first.
Four pitchers were ejected. Now
that’s catharsis.
That Acclaim has produced some of
the best sports software on the market
makes one wonder what yutz approved
ASB, what with its choppy movements,
mediocre graphics, and limited control
options. You can play in a multitude of
stadiums, but unlike the best games on
the market (World Series Baseball is a
prime example), none of the arenas here
have character. Yankee Stadium might
be the House That Ruth Built, but to
ASB it’s just backdrop. It affects game-
play not one iota.
ASB lacks the simple things that
make great baseball games, well, great.
Except for the three-second span when
hitters approach the plate and we are
granted a close-up, all of the action is
ACTION T
REPLAY
₪ Here's a strange and unusual happening:
А New York Met pitcher throws a meatball
that's knocked out of the stratosphere.
ESPN NBA 2NIGHT
Over the years, basketball
games have proven to be a lot
like first dates: usually fun, but
rarely—if ever—ultimately satisfying.
Konami's most recent hoops attempt
is certainly competent; but on a plat-
form which lays claim to three of the
finest polygonal renditions of the
sport ever created, there is simply
nor room for mere competence.
From the initial loading screen to the
end-game celebrations, ESPN NBA
2Night is rough around the edges.
Navigating through the various menus is
a headache-inducing endeavor, and in-
game graphical bells and whistles are
kept to a minimum. Player models are
inconsistent at best; low-resolution tex-
tures and sloppy construction make for
unconvincing close-ups. Animation is
spotty as well, with altogether too many
awkward movements and jerky colli-
sions. Rebounding is not realized very
well, and the passing game is flawed.
That said, there are certain areas in
which 2Night excels. Mid-move transi-
tions, in particular, are executed with
surprising grace and fluidity, and the
"fake" button allows for some subtle
B The standard jump shot animations in
2Night are perhaps the best the genre has
ever seen. We're not very big fans of see-
ing them when we go up for a layup or
dunk three feet from the basket, however...
$ 090 XBN
miles away. The fans are a blur. The
players seem to have emerged straight
out of the Atari 2600. There is no mini-
box in the corner to show where
runners are located. There is no dia-
gram pertaining to a hitter's hot and
cold spots. Although Randy Johnson
owns four Cy Young awards and Dave
hesitation and ill-nasty breaks. The ball
has a nice weight to it, and netting a
triple feels (and looks) quite accurate.
Playing this game is not unenjoyable.
Stuart Scott provides mildly enter-
taining commentary and it's got all the
requisite play modes but, at the end of
the day, 2Night simply falls a bit flat. It's
Dev : Acclaim VR hotdogs : VR gas
Pub : Acclaim Release : Out Now
Players : 1-2
Burba is a perennial punching bag, in
ASB their pitch velocity and movement
is identical. How did that happen?
Jeff Pearlman
ep Four
Dev : Konami Close but: No cigar
Pub : Konami Release : Out Now
Players : 1-4
a huge leap past the original Dreamcast
version, but this simply can't compete
with the true ballers.
Evan Shamoon
e) Five
SPY HUNTER
Dev : Point of View Pub : Midway Players : 1-2 Spies: Don't Like Us Release Date : Out Now
For those old enough to
remember when Must-See TV
consisted of The Cosby Show and
Family Ties, the original Spy Hunter
represents a pinnacle of arcade
gaming.
The new Spy Hunter—a PlayStation
2 port—doesn't really represent a
pinnacle of anything, but it does feature
a remake of the Peter Gunn theme by
nu-metal outfit Saliva, who contributed
the puzzling chorus "Come on and let
the Hunt be the Hunted/Get in my way
and I'll be blowing up something."
Sadly, “blowing up something” isn't
quite as much fun as it should be,
thanks primarily to some muddy
graphics. Spy Hunter is incredibly
dark—a problem made worse when
damaged vehicles ahead of you spew
plumes of smoke in your direction.
The camera puts you behind the G-
6155 Interceptor, which transforms into
a boat and motorcycle when appropri-
ate, as you blast your way through 14
levels while taking on the vaguely evil
and presumably spy-oriented Nostra
International. The Interceptor sports
weapons that harken back to the
CRASH BRnDIC00T: THE WRATH OF CORTEX
№ As a PlayStation 2 game, Spy Hunter's graph-
ics were passable. As an Xbox game, they're
simply sub-par.
Reagan-era game—machine guns,
missiles, etc.—but the levels place too
much emphasis on lame secondary
missions like tagging boats with tracker
units. What's more, these levels are all
too brief, checking in at five to seven
minutes apiece. You do the math—this
game is short. And not so sweet.
There are some nice bonus features,
including a hidden version of the original
game, but it's simply not enough.
Dan DiGiacomo
-= Five out of Ten
Dev : Traveller’s Tales Pub : Universal Interactive Players : 1 Crash: Same old coot Release Date : Out Now
Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of
Cortex knows where its bread is
buttered and, make no bones about
it, it's from someone else's crock. If
there's a good idea out there, rest
assured Crash has swiped it. If
there's a mediocre idea to be had,
chances are Crash has burgled it,
too. The game pilfers some terrible
ideas as well, with the rationale being
that thinking up something new
might be time consuming.
Crash marches the parade straight
down Cliché Boulevard. The manic
bandicoot collects fruit, jewels, and
other trinkets; smashes crates galore;
and engages in all sorts of kooky plat-
form-based action. It's a slow level
when some huge beast doesn't smash
through the walls and chase Crash ad
nauseam and an even slower level that
doesn't feature some wacky vehicle
that wants piloting. In the laziest move
of all, even the game's boss characters
are based on the four elements.
Yet Crash reeks of solid workman-
ship. The Xbox version contains
graphics worth staring at and load times
that have been shortened appreciably
№ Who's Crash, you're wondering? Well, we're
Still not sure, but we do know he likes collecting
fruits, crystals, gems, relics, and other fun stuff.
from those seen on the PlayStation 2.
The chase scenes are just harrying
enough to quicken anyone's pulse, and
the game does an excellent job of
Switching gears to stave off any bore-
dom that might ensue. In the colorful
lingo of the streets, this bandicoot has
game—and the fact that it’s someone
else's game (actually multiple some-
ones) shouldn't deter anyone from
taking this marsupial for a spin. Or two.
Greg Orlando
=p) Six out of Ten
XRATED
Smart Reviews
PIRATES: THE LEGEND OF BLRCH HAT
Dev : Westwood Pub : Electronic Arts Players : 1 Grog: Orlando Release Date : Out Now
Yarrgh! Legend has it that if ye
put two mediocre games
together on one disc, ye can beguile
the witless into thinking ye've got one
good piece of swag. Shiver me tim-
bers, but it just ain't so.
Pirates: the Legend of Black Kat
comes highly recommended, but only if
you're inclined to randomly blurt out the
following phrases, loudly and in a
pirate's voice while playing: “Yeargh! It's
the broadsides for you!" and "Grog and
plunderin' keeps me warm at night!" As
buccaneer Katarina de Leon, you run
around a series of bland island environ-
ments performing mind-shriveling fetch
quests for characters who, quite frankly,
should be collecting their own flowers
and such; engaging in simplistic sword
battles; and digging up buried treasure
that's revealed when the Xbox controller
decides to shake and spasm with force
enough to crack pavement.
Traveling between islands on a can-
non-packed ship stands as the better
half of Pirates. Thrilling sea battles are
fought arcade-style, complete with spe-
cial weapons and instant ship repairs. А
loony camera eliminates the possibility
SMASHING DRIVE
№ ProTip: Yelling, “It's time to taste the cold,
cold steel, уе scurvy dogs!" while playing this
game will make you feel more like a pirate.
of catching these battles in all their glory
(glory in Pirates, of course, being a rela-
tive term), and the game's odd
predilection for nighttime levels ensures
that players will be doing double duty
fighting and squinting.
Though neither portion of Pirates can
be considered horrid, the shoehorning
of two lackluster games makes for a
legend best forgotten, and a treasure to
be buried. Deep.
Greg Orlando
Í Five out of Ten
Dev : Gaelco S.A. Pub : Namco Players : Earsplitting: Headache Release Date : Out Now
Imagine taking everything that
was good about Crazy Taxi and
San Francisco Rush, and putting it all
together in one game. Now, imagine
doing the exact opposite of that. The
result would look and play an awful
lot like Smashing Drive.
Actually, Smashing Wreck would be a
more appropriate title; in many ways
this is a blueprint for making a game as
annoying as possible. The idea is to
race a rival taxi driver through the
streets of New York (although since you
never pick up a single passenger, it's
unclear why being in a taxi is even rele-
vant). One or two bits of business here
show smudges of creativity—like driving
through burning buildings or chasing
King Kong up a skyscraper—but mostly
you're reduced to hitting very mundane
ramps and grabbing largely uninterest-
ing powerups. Your computer-controlled
opponent glides through traffic, never
slowing down or making a single mis-
take, so the challenge mostly consists
of finding the one or two magic short-
cuts on every level that can put you
ahead—find them, you win. Miss them,
you lose. Period.
№ Smashing Drive is one of those titles that
makes us reconsider our career paths. In fact,
tomorrow, we're going to become alchemists.
There are a total of nine levels
through four different sections of the
city, plus a few pointless bonus areas,
but for all the frustration of its trial-and-
error gameplay, Smashing Drive can still
be beaten in a few hours. However, it's
recommended you turn off the sound-
track after the first 10 minutes, or risk
nausea and headaches the likes of
which haven't experienced since that
Pokémon seizure incident. Awful.
Jeff Lundrigan
= | Three out of Ten
XBN 091 9
XRATED
Smart Reviews
гоог FIFA WORLD CUP
Dev : EA Sports Pub : Electronic Arts Canada Players: 1 - 4 The Best : For now Release Date : Out Now
With only two play modes—
World Cup Tournament (a
seven-game series) and Friendly,
FIFA World Cup 2002 is about one
thing and one thing only: fun.
While other soccer games aim to sat-
isfy all of your simulated soccer needs
(from drafting teams and managing a
squad’s front office), FIFA seems only
concerned with gameplay. Setup is
about is quick and easy; within a few
clicks of the "A" button, you and your
boys are on the pitch and ready to go.
Those familiar with the series will
welcome commentary by John Motsen
and Andy Gray, as well as the familiar
interface; however, playing the game
with the Xbox controller will take some
getting used to. Also, it seems that
every year EA likes to muck around with
the game's pace and various controls,
and this year's version is no exception.
In an attempt to make the game play
more like watching a televised one, the
developers have slowed things down a
bit. In other words, at the Professional
level, don't think that the road to victory
will be as simple as giving the rock to
star Eddie Pope and just guiding him
₪ Sing it with us: “These are а ҒІ-ҒА my favorite
things..." Uh. Sorry.
through the defense. Some of the pass-
ing schemes have changed as well,
such that finding open men for those
all-too-important crosses won't be as
easy as it's been in the past.
Criticisms aside, EA has put together
a game that you'll enjoy playing by
yourself or with up to three of your bud-
dies. While it may not be the deepest
around, FIFA is just plain fun. And in the
final analysis, that goes a long way.
Wil O'Neal
a | Seven out of Te
HNOCHOUT HINGS 2002
Dev : Black Ops Pub : Electronic Arts Players : 1-2 King: By Default Release Date : Out Now
Electronic Arts' inbred monar-
chy Knockout Kings doles out
shiny fighters who appear to have
been dipped in Turtle Wax and whose
connected blows sound exactly like
gunshots; there are more phantom
punches to be found here than in a
rumble between Casper and Hamlet's
old man. It's boxing gone surreal,
complete with referee Mills Lane
whose countenance seems to have
been melted on a hot stove, and cor-
nermen whose sage advice consists
of gems such as “Relax. You're doing
good. Keep working the combos.”
Forget the whole notion of Knockout
Kings existing as a boxing simulation;
any such pretense із shattered with this
year's go-round. Brawls eschew апу
Sort of skill and are won by the pugilist
who lands the most punches in the least
amount of time. Blocking, a very useful
tool in real-world boxing, has been
trimmed in Kings to the point where a
fighter will raise his guard for a period of
time equal to or less than one full sec-
ond before dropping it. To the point:
punches can only be blocked one at a
time, a farcical proposition considering
« 092 XBN
E = а
№ Knockout Kings is not only the shiniest boxing
game we've ever played, but also the sassiest.
even the lowliest pug in this game can
hurl six or so punches in three seconds.
Beautiful and over-the-top knockout
replays as well as a terrific force-feed-
back system that thumps the Xbox
controller in tune to a fatigued fighter's
heartbeat, help steer Kings toward
competency...and the sheer thrill of
pounding the opposition to paste
with some fanciful fisticuffs can't be
easily discounted.
Greg Orlando
ESPN MLSEXTREME 2002
Dev : Konami Pub : Konami Players : 1-4 Coulda : Shoulda Release Date : Out Now
Based on its pedigree, we had
very high hopes for this one;
ESPN MLS Extreme 2002 comes from
the creators of the glorious /SS series
on the PlayStation and Nintendo 64.
Sadly, our hopes were dashed the
minute we loaded the game.
MLS Extreme 2002 sports more than
100 teams, including real Major League
Soccer and national squads. Konami's
even built in a deep general manager
mode for those who prefer to toil away
in the back office. Replete with a wealth
of animations and commentary from
Jack Edwards and Luis Tapia (the
"Goal!" guy from Telemundo), MLS 2002
looks great on paper. Unfortunately, the
game is virtually unplayable.
An unwieldy interface, endemic to
most of Konami's sports titles, stands
as an obstacle between the player and
the ever-elusive "fun." The menus and
options become excessive at some
point—and MLS simply doesn't know
when to quit. Competent yet uninspired
graphics dominate and, adding insult to
injury, it typically took about two whole
losing matches to figure out how to
effectively control the players, switch
BLITZ 20-02
₪ After receiving its share of victory hugs for the
inspired /SS series, the MLS ball bounces, in all
ways, badly for Konami.
players, pass, or shoot. From a purely
organic control standpoint, this game is
light years behind /SS 64...and that is,
quite simply, inexcusable.
Konami should be lauded for the
attempt. MLS Extreme 2002 has some
modes that, were the game more
playable, would be gaming time well-
spent. Instead, difficult controls and a
confusing interface make MLS Extreme
2002 an exercise in extreme frustration.
Wil O'Neal
Dev : Point of View Pub : Midway Players : 1-4 Blitz: Bomb Release Date : Out Now
We'd feel rather safe in saying
the 365-day period between
Jan. 1 and Dec. 31 wouldn't rightly be
a year if, during that period, Midway
didn't release a new iteration of its
classic smashmouth football game
Blitz. In fact, Blitz (along with death,
taxes, and Dick Clark) is one of the
universe's great constants.
Blitz 20-02 breaks away from the
Blitz tradition a bit in that it's not last
year's model reheated and with four
hours' worth of graphical improve-
ments. This year, the brutality is
augmented by eight-man teams and the
addition of a special "impact player" for
every squad. This special player can be
assigned to different tasks, be it block-
ing, blitzing, or running a receiving
route, and the addition of a wild card of
sorts to each play adds new depth to
the title. This impact player does little to
offset the imbalance between the
overemphasized pass game and the
rather limp running offense, but it's a
nice idea nonetheless.
Sharp and smart, Blitz 20-02 burns
the NFL's rulebook and allows for
unparalleled arcade-style mayhem. It's
₪ Fun Fact: “Blitz” is German in origin, and
short for "blitzkrieg." Blitzkrieg, as the Poles
learned in World War ІІ, means "lightning war."
great fun to mug a receiver before the
ball reaches his hand, or bodyslam a
hapless quarterback to the cold, cruel
Earth; after a play, the recently tackled
can be legdropped, elbowed or similarly
molested. Goofy commentary accom-
panies the on-screen action, and the
developers have put in their requisite
time to beautify the graphics so they're
worthy of the Xbox. Put a hearty seven
up on the board for Midway.
Greg Orlando
JAMES BOND: AGENT UnDER FIRE
беу: Electronic Arts Pub : Electronic Arts Players : 1-4 Bond : Lames Bond Release Date : Out Now
Many still see Rare's GoldenEye
as the undisputed champion of
console first-person shooters. Now,
as EA makes its latest attempt to
revitalize the sagging James Bond
license, we find the veteran develop-
er still struggling to reclaim that old
FPS magic.
Agent Under Fire features an original
storyline not borrowed from any of the
James Bond films. It includes all the spy
doo-dads fans expect—renegade sub-
marines, chemical warfare, and
super-hot kung fu babes. But upon
closer inspection, we find little more
than a paint-by-numbers first-person
shooter with a few driving and shooting
gallery segments thrown in for variety's
sake. Though the game's visuals are
solid (especially on the framerate-friend-
ly Xbox), the action lacks both variety
and challenge. An oppressive auto-aim
System, weak enemy Al, and simplistic
puzzles keep gameplay straightforward
and repetitive. Players are encouraged
to find special *Bond Moves" within the
levels to rack up bonus points...in turn
unlocking skins, weapons, and multi-
player maps. Unfortunately, most of
BURNOUT
Ш Wouldn't it be cool to play a game wherein the
hero was a secret agent who was always being
set on fire? You could call it "Agent on Fire."
these are painfully obvious, and the
unlockable bonuses less than gratifying.
Multiplayer is one of the game's
stronger points, featuring Deathmatch
with optional computer-controlled bots,
Capture the Flag, and King of the Hill.
But there's not enough originality
here to keep us away from Halo for
long. AUF's Bond license may be
enough to satisfy serious fans, but oth-
ers will be balk at its shallow gameplay.
Matt Sammons
> Four out of Ten
Dev : Criterion Pub : Acclaim Players :1 Side : Impact Release Date : Out Now
If Acclaim's Burnout seems to
come up a hair short, bear in
mind the company it keeps; in any
other era, this would be top of the
line. From Gran Turismo to the free-
wheeling of San Francisco Rush and
Crazy Taxi, we’re living in a veritable
Golden Age for console racing games
Burnout is a terrific-looking game,
recreating both the lush green of moun-
tain highways and the cramped
cobblestones of roadside villages with
aplomb. You get a heady sense of
speed here, the control is responsive
and suitably arcade-y, and while chal-
lenging, the learning curve isn't all that
steep. Тһе А! of opposing drivers is
sharp, as they deliberately attempt to
push you off the road or into other cars.
Burnout's main point of hype is its
rather spectacular crashes. Roadways
are swarming with civilian vehicles, and
plowing into one earns a frighteningly
realistic wreck. It's cool eye candy, com-
plete with a handy readout telling you
exactly how much insurance money it's
gonna take to fix the damage.
But Burnout also suffers from small,
if numerous shortcomings. The mone-
3 11133 1
81 АРАН
23:
₪ Old-school fans of Sega's arcade classic
Outrun will feel right at home on Burnout's
roads.
tary damage doesn't mean squat, and
has no real effect on gameplay. Being
completely blindsided at an intersection
is frustrating as hell, and while the
selection of tracks (14 in all) is pretty
healthy, the choice of cars is dismal—
they may look sorta different, but they
break down into three basic categories
that all handle about the same.
Burnout is a solid competitor—fast
and fun and oddly addictive.
Jeff Lundrigan
=) Seven out of Ten
XRATED
Smart Reviews
GAUNTLET: DARK LEGACY
Dev : Midway Pub: Midway Players: 1-4 Yes : Again Release Date : Out Now
Flawed but solidly fun, deep as
a dime, and airy as a zeppelin,
Gauntlet: Dark Legacy provides the
sort of cerebrum-free action that
fairly screams to be enjoyed in 20-
minute intervals.
For those unfortunate souls who
happened to be asleep or dead for
Gauntlet's previous iterations, the game
puts players in the role of a medieval
hero thrust into a series of environments
where many strange and exotic mon-
sters demand killing with various melee
and projectile weaponry. It's all standard
fare, with a few role-playing game ele-
ments tossed in for good measure.
The usual criticisms involved with
quick-and-dirty Xbox translations apply.
Legacy has been poorly ported, so
much so we expect the programmers
left the job to lower primates, perhaps
gibbons or macaques. The game fea-
tures 3D graphics, as well as an
isometric view that tends to show off
ugly character and creature models.
Players will find the in-game camera
positioned down too close to the
action—this enhances the view of the
shoddy characters while simultaneously
MOTO GP
№ Woodrow Wizard and Arthur Conan the
Barbarian decided to take a break from
plundering and begin slaughtering.
reducing a player's ability to see a lot of
Dark Legacy's worlds.
In the face of these sizable bumps in
the road, Legacy manages to uphold its
predecessors' fine tradition of hectic,
kill-*em-all, gameplay, and emerges as а
game that's more magic than it is muck.
Just don't bother going solo here;
Gauntlet has always emphasized the
shared experience and Midway's dun-
geons are best crawled with friends.
Greg Orlando
=} | Six out of Теп
Dev : Climax Pub : THQ Players : 1-4 GP: Gross Product? Release Date : Out Now
While we've played more than
our share of console racing
games, there haven't been many
good ones of late featuring our two-
wheeled pal the motorcycle.
Moto GP, which features 10 tracks
modeled on real life venues and the like-
nesses of more than 30 pro bikers,
bucks that trend. In fact, the game pro-
vides a unique feeling of authenticity
and a depth of gameplay to a genre all
but buried in a glut of car-based racers.
Newbies to bike racing will be
pleased with the game's gentle but
deep learning curve and veterans will
marvel at its fancy graphical touches.
Even with bump-mapped terrain and up
to 20 high-poly bikes on screen at
once, the game never drops below 60
frames per second. The high framerate
adds amazingly to the game's sense of
speed, and the Xbox' springy analog
Sticks provide plenty of control. The
controls are simple—one stick is used
for turning and the other for gas and
brake. Advanced users will also want to
master the independent front and rear
wheel brakes, and eventually the elu-
sive wheelie. Luckily, there's a
№ Motorcycles are like bikes for lazy people.
Motorcycle video games are like motorcycles for
lazy AND pathetic people.
comprehensive training mode to help
with the finer points.
Throw in solid arcade and simulation
modes and a ton of unlockable bonus-
es, and we're left with little to pick on.
Even the multiplayer modes, including a
system link option, show plenty of pol-
ish. Essentially, Moto GP is a game that
has the potential to satisfy both gear-
heads and a good chunk of wannabe
bikers alike.
Matt Sammons
Eight out of Ten
XBN 093 》
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games
Inside Xtra
Let's play nine p104 Wonderboy! p102
THE EGO
HAS LANDED
Xbox Nation interviewed Peter Molyneux as he was preparing to address a
packed auditoriu e annual Game Developers Conference in San Jose.
Between ШУ ОТ breaks and the munching of chips, he spilled
the beans on '5`Пех{ for the god of god games.
$ 093 хвм
Peter Molyneux is one of the biggest
₪ stars іп the gaming firmament. His
balding head routinely pops out of just
about every European gaming magazine there
is—and his Zen-like presence and considered
perspectives on game design make him a favorite
speaker at E3 and the Game Developers
Conference. His company Lionhead Studios is
now well established following the critical and
commercial success of the PC hit Black and
White, and his commitment to independent game
development in the form of the Lionhead
Satellites Program has helped a number of small
outfits get their projects off the ground, not least
of which is Big Blue Box's Project Ego.
Molyneux virtually invented the genre of the
god game with Populous on the Commodore
Amiga, and since then his efforts have been
largely confined to the less-glamorous (but no
less obsessive) world of the PC. Until now. With
three new projects Xbox bound, B/ack and White:
Next Generation, B.C., and the epic Project Ego,
Molyneux is stepping into a wider world.
Xbox Nation: What are you working on right now,
other than Project Ego?
Peter Molyneux: Since March we've kicked off the
Xbox version of Black and White which we're calling
Black and White: Next Generation, which is in no way
like the PC version. In [Next Generation], the whole
game is centered totally around your creature instead
of this disembodied "God hand." There's this new
gameplay mechanic, which we shall show at ЕЗ,
where you can take your creature in and collect the
villagers round him and drag them around with him.
The more villagers he has, the quicker he grows, the
stronger he is, the better fighter he is when he meets
other creatures, the more magic he can cast. It's
much more like an RPG than a god game.
XBN: Is it a completely different game? Are you
using assets from the original title?
Molyneux: [We're using] some of the artwork and
some of the animations, but every single line of code
is new. It's a totally new game. New story. New
challenges. And really, the reason that's come about
is the realization—and it's simple to put—that Га
never really tackled a console game before. Га
ported lots, yeah, but some of them had been
successful and some of them hadn't been success-
ful. Sitting down I’m thinking, "Well, if | want to make
a great console game, how can | do that?” And the
answer is by going back to school. It’s like starting
again. Developing a console game is so different to a
PC experience. | can’t assume, for example, that I’ve
automatically got someone's attention for hours on
end. The fact of the matter is that if you're playing a
console game you might be half-drunk or half
something else [Laughs] and you're not going to be
playing it for six hours straight, you're going to be
playing between doing other things.
XBN: So this is Peter Molyneux the Next
Generation?
Molyneux: Yes, it is in a way. And that's gone into
Project Ego and B.C. and Black and White: Next
Generation.
XBN: Why will Project Ego be the "Greatest Role-
Playing Game Ever Made"?
Molyneux: The idea with Project Ego—that incredibly
bold and stupid thing for me to say—that it's got to
be the best RPG ever is actually like asking, "Please
Mr. Journalist—kick me in the nuts when this comes
out," because you'd love to say, "Actually it's the
shittiest role-playing game ever." [Laughs]
So how come | even attempt to do that? Because
looking back on it, there are things that we have been
doing on the PC for years that have never really been
tried on the console, that could make the game
experience that much better. Right now, role-playing
games are set in scripted worlds, where nothing
changes. How many times have you walked up to a
character and had them say, "You've got to go and
rescue the princess up on the hill," and you've just
done the most obscene things to the person next to
them, with a sword, and they still speak to you as if
nothing's happened. It pisses me off. It doesn't feel
right. We can change that. We can set this linear story
in a simulated world. Instead of playing a character
that is fixed and designed by some game designer,
you play a character that you have an influence on—
that changes and morphs as the game goes on.
XBN: Sounds like Black and White...
Molyneux: It's the same concept. What your charac-
ter is in Project Ego is up to you. He starts off as a
15-year-old kid. Whether he is a Conan the
Barbarian-type character, or a Bruce Lee-type martial
arts guy, or a wizard, isn't down to a question at the
start of the game. It's down to what you do with him
during the game. Whether you are the most evil hero
of all time that has slaughtered young children or
whether you're going to be the most noble of knights
like Sir Lancelot, is completely up to you. Is it better
that those morphs and changes happen to a cow, or
is it better if they happen to a human being? It seems
more natural, obviously, if those things happen to a
human being.
What we've done is we've taken some of the
inspiration from Black and White, like the
morphing-and what Big Blue Box has done is
increase it enormously. For example, the morphing is
now to the most detailed level. The character you
play in Project Ego is 15 years old. You play the
game until you finish it. If by the end of the game the
character is an old man, then he's an old man, and
A INTERVIEW
he looks like an old man, because he morphed/aged
as the game progressed.
Another aggravation of role-playing games is that
they always take place over a weekend in game
terms. You started playing the game on Friday and
the world had to be saved by Monday morning. It’s
ridiculous. Why not set it over somebody's life and
say, yes, there is this great quest that you have to go
on, and it’s a life quest, and at the end of the game,
you are going to be the greatest hero the world has
ever known.
Another thing we’re introducing is something that
role-playing games have never had—a competitive
element. You’re not the only hero in the world. You
might be down at this tower where this damsel
needs saving, and you look up and there’s Boris the
Impaler already halfway up! And you think, “Bastard!
He’s going to get all the kudos for rescuing the girl!”
These are things we've done on the PC, and they
shouldn't be imported directly, but the underlying
mechanics should.
XBN: So what about B.C.? We've heard some
stuff.
Molyneux: B.C. is set in a prehistoric world. You play
the role of a tribe. That sounds a bit weird, but you
can play any member of a tribe. We don't say: "Hey,
you're this one." You've probably had drunken
conversations like | have, and they go something like
this: "Imagine you go back in time, and you couldn't
take a anything with you and you were naked, what
would you change?"
XBN: Err...right.
Molyneux: [Laughs] The reality is that this game is
going to be the most brutal, savage, gory, unbeliev-
ably gut wrenchingly bloody game ever seen on a
console, and | put it to you that if you actually do get
to kill a Tyrannosaurus Rex, the ocean of blood that
spews forth from this creature will turn your stomach.
| want this to be a primitive world. It's not cozy,
comfy cushion-y land—it's going to be somewhere
that is unbelievably brutal. Arms are ripped off, and
heads crushed.
XBN: Sounds like our office.
Molyneux: Well, it's about survival. The first, opening
scene of the game, is a cave with these barely
human, disgustingly behaved beings, huddling—not
knowing where their next meal will come from. The
first thing you do is lead them out of this cave, and
as you come out of the cave, you're on top of a cliff,
and below you is this enormous valley, just full of
incredible life. And we're not making dinosaurs life-
size; we're making them like Godzilla. They're big
things. | mean, | was disappointed when 1 went to
the National History Museum in London that the
T-Rex was small. Continued on p100
XBN 099 >
下 INTERVIEW
XBN: What perspective are you playing the game
from?
Molyneux: Third-person, over the shoulder of the
particular tribe member that you're controlling.
XBN: A follow-cam?
Molyneux: Yes. If you do something and there are
other tribe members around, then they're copy what
you do. So if you go and attack a dinosaur, they jump
in too. Those characters act as lives and power-ups.
XBN: Is there a progression? *Hey everybody—l
discovered fire!"
about, and there is a rival tribe of simians that are
competing against you, who are semi-intelligent
beings as well, who are always fighting you. What
you're doing is taking your tribe on a trek across this
huge plain, and once you get to the plateau, you'll be
safe. And at the end of the game you get a score that
says, "Based upon how you treated your tribe, your
tribe will invent ‘this’ in this year, the early tests that
we've had say that you will have invented writing by
the year 2010," and another says, "You'll invent rocket
Science." The main thing is that it's very gory, with a
little bit of tribal RPG stuff and a very soft structure in
there.
XBN: Did you play Pikmin on Gamecube?
Imagine you went back in time, and you couldn't
take anything with you and you were naked.
What would you change?
Molyneux: Yes. If you discover a bone on the ground
and you decide to use it as a weapon, then everyone
else will do that too. You can invent stuff—almost the
role-playing elements of the game, is that by the end
your tribe would have got all this cool stuff.
XBN: Nuclear weapons?
Molyneux: Not quite. But it is sort of, | know what |
can do with that round thing and make a wheel. It's
the player that decides that...| mean—we highlight
things, obviously.
XBN: So there's some progression. Are you
following a season or a year in this tribe's life?
Molyneux: The story is really simple. At the start of the
game you're basically fighting for survival. You can find
various new tribe members that are just wandering
« 100 хвм
Molyneux: The thing that's most like Pikmin is Black and
White: Next Generation, because those little creatures
you pick up and that follow you around is a bit like the
villagers following your creature in Next Generation.
XBN: Did you like it?
Molyneux: When | first started playing it | thought, this
is going to be amazing, and | really like the mechanic
of things following me and feeling that | could do
things with them. But it kind of lacked
something...that sharpness. | was talking to someone
recently who was saying that there's no original games
around any more, and | think that it's not so much that
there are no original games, but rather that there's as
much originality as there was before, but it's not the
whole thing about a game now.
XBN: So, it's hard to invent new genres, but people
are being original within the formats we're familiar
with?
Molyneux: Pikmin was probably the most totally origi-
nal game—other than Rez and things like that, where
the whole thing was totally new, and it lacked a bit of
a story, | think. But you don't blame God for making
mistakes, and [Shigeru] Miyamoto's God, so... it was
perfect!
XBN: When we look at your games, over the years,
you get a sense that each one is another step
towards the big, ultimate Peter Molyneux dream
game. How close are you to that dream now?
Molyneux: Certainly | think Project Ego and B.C. аге
steps along the way. I think that Black and White 2 is
another step again. But really, the project that | can't
say anything about at all right now, a project called
Dimitri, is stupidly ambitious.
XBN: Is this a Lionhead game?
Molyneux: Yes, What happened to the Black and
White team is that a third of them went off to do Black
and White 2, and two-thirds stayed to do Dimitri.
Dimitri won't even be showable for another two years.
And the big idea there is recreating a scene like this
[gestures to the bustling hotel lobby], down to every
single detail.
XBN: Totally convincing people?
Molyneux: Totally. Every single detail. At the moment.
We've got one scene, which is not too dissimilar to
this bit of the room, where every single detail of that
room has been simulated. Total realism.
XBN: Sounds like the Holy Grail of graphics.
Molyneux: Well, the face technology that we're talking
about—the feature technology is, І would say, and this
INTERVIEW יצ
is another of my bold claims 一 better than anything
Hollywood is doing right now. When | show it, | don't
want you to be able to distinguish between a real
human face and this face, which would be cool. Eyes
that move and follow you, the way a face animates,
and twitches and changes over time, and all of the
things that make up a human face and human body.
XBN: It's often the little gestures that make
something real—the stuff that we barely register.
Can they be distracted, while you're talking to
them, in realtime, for example?
Molyneux: Absolutely. The funny thing is that the
technology is achievable, | think, except one thing—
it's the number one limiting factor in an awful lot of
games now, and it's going to become more and more
so-and it is this: Animation. It's come out of left field.
We didn't predict this limiting factor and it's a night-
mare. Because suddenly we've got characters that
look like human beings ...
XBN: But move like cheap robots?
Molyneux: Right. We've haven't got the skill in our
industry. The people that can animate really well are at
Disney and ILM, and those companies have sucked
the animation talent out of the world already! And
suddenly, we're coming along, and our characters
have got—you know, every major bone in the human
body, covered with muscle and flesh, but you can't
ask Al to make a dramatic motion, like picking up this
glass here. It's got to be done by an artist. We've got a
team of programmers, a team of artists, and now,
suddenly, we need a team of animators which is
bigger than the team of artists and the programmers
put together!
XBN: You say you can't ask artificial intelligence to
work it out, but surely, eventually, Al will be smart
enough to figure out how to pick up a glass in a
human way?
Molyneux: We can do that now. It's called inverse-
kinematics, but it's a very simplistic thing, and the
robot looks like a robot, not a human. The only thing
we can do—and it's what we're looking at—is creating
this soup of animations that have been created by
animators, animations that are not on the whole body,
broken down into the bits of the body, and then the AI
chooses the most appropriate animation to do the
job.
| mean—primitively speaking—just for me to get up
and walk over the other side of this room, think of the
number of different moves | have to made, squeezing
past furniture, making sure | don't knock over a cup of
coffee—it’s terrifying!
Well, you’ve seen A./., the movie? The Al portion of
that | think, at least mentally, we could do a six- to
eight-year-old within about two years. | could create a
character on a computer that you would communi-
cate, probably by typing stuff in, and that would be
indistinguishable from that six- to eight-year-old. It
would have emotions—it would have fear, it would be
deceptive. In engineering terms, the idea of putting
that into a robot, it’s pathetic. It’s just pathetic. We
can’t even blink an eye in engineering terms, let alone
XBN: When it’s real enough, Peter Molyneux will
come down from the clouds and go first-person?
Molyneux: That has always been my ultimate
ambition, to do a simulation of a world. That's it.
XBN: So is first person the future of video games?
When it becomes perfectly real, you’ll want to be
in it as you—not as some third person.
Molyneux: | think that’s right. | don’t agree with
people that say there’s this stagnation of stuff in the
computer games industry. | think it’s just amazing.
When it goes from little things—they way they just got
it absolutely right about the way the enemies avoid
the shots in Halo—it made it real. Just a tiny little
innovation, but it will now influence every game. And
all these things are happening all the time, but they’re
happening on less titles, not more titles.
XBN: So has animation taken over from Al as the
next big frontier in video games?
Molyneux: No, | think Al is still that—and it’s going to
You've seen A./., the movie? From а program-
ming perspective, we could simulate a six
year old, at least mentally, within about two years
create someone close to human. So there's a lot of
amazingly exciting stuff coming out at the moment,
but there's also a lot of new frustrations.
XBN: There is that progression, though, in your
games?
Molyneux: Yes. | mean, if you look at it—if you follow
the games, you're going from up here in the heavens,
down to one person—eventually.
lead us to places we've never dreamed of going, by
the way. But animation is the bottleneck. It doesn't
matter how detailed my character is, or how
amazingly intelligent he is, because if he moves like a
robot, he's going to look dumb.
When we crack that, we'll really have something
amazing to look at.
XBN 101 >
үх M 84 72 y P P T
ч 4
~ Photo by Sean Murphy, ; hy
. x
$ 102 xBN
Next month, Xbox Nation interviews Charo about Gex, Art Garfunkel about the
nVidia chipset, and Lassie about the Mideast crisis. For now, it's Tenacious D.
Part Crosby, Stills, and Nash, part Morbid
Angel, part Steve Martin—it's a fair
assessment of the supergroup that is
Tenacious D. The world was first introduced to the
duo a few years ago via several shorts featured on
the HBO comedy program Mr. Show. Although Mr.
Show ranged from god-awful to goddamn genius,
the D shorts were end-to-end whoppers. Since the
shorts aired, lead singer/actor/comedian /favorite
of the Xbox Nation staff Jack Black has blown up
and Tenacious D has exploded with him. Since the
record came out, Black and his partner Kyle Gass
have toured ceaselessly with Weezer, appeared on
all the late night shows, and snorkeled zero times.
Dragons beware.
Xbox Nation: | saw a huge raccoon last night.
Jack Black: Where are you?
XBN: San Francisco.
Black: When you say huge, how huge?
XBN: It was up to my knee.
Black: Oh my God. Those things can be vicious. They
look cute, but you're not supposed to pet them.
XBN: Where are you guys?
Black: We're at the...Kyle—what are you doing?
Gass: lm right here. Can you hear me?
Black: Yeah, but are you doin' some other stuff?
Gass: No, go ahead. Is this better?
XBN: Way better.
Black: [To Kyle] What were you using, a special
headset?
KG: | was using a special flight simulator headset,
XBN: Do you ever get to go snorkeling while you're
on tour?
Black: That's à strange question, and the answer is no.
| could if | wanted to, but һауе not chosen to snorkel.
Gass: There's a lot of things you can do...
Black: What's with you and the snorkeling?
ХВМ: It’s fun, | did it, and heard whales singing.
Black: Okay, you are insane. But yes | have enjoyed
the fruits of snorkeling, in my youth, but not lately,
maybe you're right, maybe I'm missing out on
something.
XBN: When did you guys find out you're the best
band?
Black: | suspected it from the very beginning. Before
we even played a live show, | suspected that maybe
we could be the best band, but that goes back to my
childhood when | used to think maybe | was the
fastest runner, and | was proven wrong. | thought
maybe | could be the strongest man in the world until
proven otherwise, but I found out that was not the
case. And then I thought smartest, nope, but then the
best band, | thought, maybe the best band and then
fick, lo! and behold, we found it.
XBN: Are you going to work with Lee Perry?
Black: Hell yes, from Journey?
Gass; Мо, Lee Scratch Perry.
Black: Oh, he's a raga dude? Um, I’m not gonna say
по, I'm open to all possibilities. Has he expressed
interest?
XBN: | don't know, but he's a very good producer.
Black: If he's down with the D, that's the main thing.
Can you check into that?
XBN: Yep. How many dragons have you guy seen?
Black: Seen or slayed?
XBN: Seen.
Black: Гуе seen only two, but Гуе slain three. Because
one of them was coming up behind me, | slayed him
and he disappeared in a ball of flame before ! could
get a glimpse.
Gass: I'm not really sure you slayed him, though.
Black: No, but you told me, you Saw.
Gass: That's true, | assumed you did.
XBN: What do dragons smell like?
Black: Sulfur.
Gass: They do not smell good dude.
Black: And one time there was an invisible dragon,
that | had sex with.
XBN: So you were Zeus and the dragon was Leda?
Black: I'm not familiar with that fable.
XBN: Zeus wants to make love to Leda and she
doesn't like him, so he turns into a swan and they
have sex.
Black: And she has sex with a swan? She boned a
swan? And he was stoked. | like Zeus, | like all those
Greek guys. They're very sexual, the gods from
Christianity and all the other ones, you don't hear
about them boning. Zeus will go and bone and һауе а
good time.
XBN: Which one is the best god?
Black: Well Zeus is obviously the most powerful right? — -
Best god,..'m gonna go with Elron, ‘cause he's the |
most scí-fi. He can kill microscopic aliens with his
laser vision.
Gass: What's the guy that's fleet of foot? SER
Black: That's Flash. pm
Gass: Apollo? וכ
Black: Who's faster, Flash or Apollo?
Gass: 1 think Apollo. 1
Black: They both have wings on their feet.
XBN: Flash has wings on his head.
JB: Only on his head.
ХВМ: You guys ever see someone run а —
loop?
JB: [Laughs] How do you do that?
ХВМ: You have to run really fast.
Black: You mean if there was а ramp? ו haven't seen
that. Have you Kage?
Gass: Have not, although the chick last night.. pue
was a gymnast, and she was trying to do one of vo :
walk-overs, but not using her hands. 6
Black: Oh no, did she bite it?
Gass: So close to biting it, she kinda fell backwards
and it looked like the head was gonna...
Black: But she didn't hit her head. :
Gass: She didn't hit her head, but she did kinda 2
XBN: Are you back in LA for awhile or аге you.
going to keep touring?
JB: We're going on tour dude. Major f'ckin' tour. -
XBN: With Cannibal Corpse?
JB: I'm not familar with their work. Who's Cannibal.
Corpse?
XBN: They're a good death-metal band.
Black: Really? Не! no. We're gonna do a stretch with:
David Cross hopefully. And we're gonna do a stretch
with Kid Rock, and hopefully Eddie Vedder will come |
out. | heard [Paul] McCartney and Ringo [Starr] аге |
gonna back us up on some of the shows. Check this ©
out: We've got an offer out, we've haven't heard back
from them yet, We've asked Dave Grohl and Krist
Novoselic to come out, and we'll. call it Nirvana, and
me and Kage will have to join forces to make up. for
the missing Kurt Cobain. с
Gass: | think the name might be Nirvana Redux.
not sure though.
рт
tradition. Its great to be a part of.
5. home ER view that you'd be looking
. out at, зау, any zen uode the exact view | see
| вте ла able Jo complete
your duties? Will Sega ден ате aped
x Giambi: Yeah, and then | won't be able to play the
game апутоге. That would be rough. | don't know if
; be able to handle that, because ! enjoy playing,
_ video games. I've played since | was a kid.
“ХВМ: Your teammate Derek Jeter is the
5 spokesman for Acclaim's All-Star Baseball. Did һе
` give you any advice on the trials and tribulations of
|. spokesmanship?
1 Giambi: No, he didn't. Now, we're rivals as it goes in
` the video game world. No, we've been having a good
_ time with it, you know, he's great with it. So, like I've
said, anytime you get an opportunity to be behind
something that's great and that you enjoy doing—and
Гуе been playing video games since | was a kid. It's
. the cool part of being a big leaguer.
| XBN: What systems did you play?
Giambi: When | was a kid? You know, | had even
‘before Sega came out with the Xbox and everything
else, | had, you know Sega and | also had, let's see,
_ with the uh, the biggest one, you know, some
PlayStation, but Sega was the biggest one that |
ended up having as a kid.
XBN: dee wae ל your glove
“like Allie Caufield from J.D. Salinger's Catcher in
E Giambi: No, you know I'm pretty anal about keeping
_ my glove in great shape and I've had the same glove
_ for about the last seven years— try to touch it up and
keep it all together. There are some guys who write on
_ the top of their hats, other guys do their little rituals at
the plate, but I'm pretty basic. The only one [ritual] | do
= is! put my uniform on the same way every day.
ient them by asking how come Pas never
. been picked to promote a baseball game?
| paid. millions to play baseball and endorse World Series
.אסכ But has he ever been in the same room as a video game?
Giambi: No, the biggest thing is that when you get
to first base, the most things you talk about are the
girls in the first row, what's going on in the game,
you know, and sometimes things really unrelated
to baseball.
XBN: Are you going to give your brother Jeremy a
nougie or a wedgie if he gets to first base?
Giambi: [Laughs] No. We grew up as best friends, so
it's great that he's doing well this year. It's one of the
biggest things ! miss not being with the A's is my
brother, because it was pretty special to grow up and
be on the same field as your brother. It doesn't get any
better than that.
XBN: What do you think of Sega's strategy of shift-
ing from a hardware developer to a strictly
platform-agnostic content publisher?
Giambi: | think it's great move on their part. | think they
really feel that's where the market's at and they can be
more realistic. | think them switching over, you know,
they're trying to tap a new part of the market that's
really not been tapped into.
XBN: Have you played World Series Baseball yet?
Giambi: I've only seen bits and pieces of it. We haven't
finished up everything that they need to go with the
game. Because of [Sega] being out here in the Bay
area and me in New York, | haven't had a lot of
opportunity to see a lot of things that have gone on
with the game.
XBN: What was the motion capture process like?
Giambi: We haven't done the motion capture yet.
We've still got that in the works. It's definitely going to
be cool, you know the way they described it. You get
to put on the wet suit and throw out the little ping-
pong balls. That's what it makes it so realistic:
because it's actually you swinging the bat, it's actually
you throwing the ball or sliding or whatever they want
you to do. That's the fun part of the game.
XBN: Do you believe that Union general Abner
Doubleday created baseball or do you believe in a
more evolutionary theory, as put forth by anthro-
pologist Stephen Jay Gould?
Giambi: [Laughs] Well, first of all, it probably would
have helped if | had finished college—l'm just kidding.
You know, | think everybody wants to have this big to
do about how this game was started. | think
Doubleday was a big part of how the game got
started, but that's always up for debate. I really don't
know where it actually started, but they way every-
body talks about it, Abner Doubleday did. :
L Ж
М INTERVIEW ^
XTRA
Out of the Box
>
Essential Selections
Your Xbox is your multimedia pal. It gets tired of the guns and the explosions and
the video game shenanigans, so feed it some music and cinematic masterpieces.
BoC makes music that
transports you to other
places. One moment you'll be
riding on a merry-go-round
with loads of kiddies on a
sunny day in July and with the
smell of sunscreen in the air,
the next you'll be swimming in
a gyroscopic aquapool on Jupiter with loads of
kiddies, except this time they'll actually be kiddy-
impersonating robots and it smells normal because
robots don't need to wear sunscreen. After their
amazing debut, these guys said that Geogaddi could
be "a perfect album"; we have no idea what a "perfect
album" should sound like, but this is very good, and
we recommend you present it to your ears as a gift.
The work of Atlanta-
based Scott Herren,
Studies demonstrates more
original musical concepts than
your ears will know what to
do with. The sound is both
gloriously lo-fi and bumping
as hell, with white noise and
electronic fragments layered atop one another by
someone whose understanding of music is as instinc-
tive as it is comprehensive. By chopping up samples
of emcees and using the resulting vocal fragments as
individual instruments—including those of Aesop Rock
and MF Doom—Herren opens up new pathways in
your brain. Beats are bananas, production is tight, and
this is one of the best records we've heard in years.
Warren Zevon, arguably
the world's leading
exporter of thrice-plumbed
angst, collaborates with
authors Hunter S. Thompson
and Carl Hiaasen, enlists the
help of TV goof David
Letterman, and, in doing so,
creates the perfect album for a Prozac Sunday.
Brilliant and comic, with equal parts of kick to the
stomach and twitchy rock beats, Here is perhaps
Zevon's finest stab at the American zeitgeist; when he
croons, “I’ve got a bitter sort of je ne sais quois—
Guess what? I'm stirring it with a monkey's paw," you
can just about sense that Zevon is perhaps too
talented for his own good. Buy two copies.
The second LP from
Brighton-based Stuart
Cullen, who cites influences
from Black Dog to Public
Enemy to Phillip Glass. Mr.
Cullen’s compositions are
melancholy, detached, and
beautiful, all with an underly-
ing sense of humor—which itself never interferes with
the album's emotional resonance. Pilote's work cannot
be easily categorized; “Nelson” is a vaguely retro,
upbeat electro track, while “French Canadian,”
perhaps the album's finest moment, is a beautiful
downtempo gem with distant vocal samples, rich
strings and a distorted piano melody. It makes us feel
both happy and sad, and we highly recommend it.
$ 106 хвм
Today it seems like the
best film soundtracks
are only good because they
remind you of scenes from
the film itself, so when we
found one that could stand on
its own we thought it
deserved some credit. The
soundtrack was put together by director Wes
Anderson, with original music by Mark Mothersbaugh;
together they have created a compilation with the
same polished, subtle emotion as the movie. The
soundtrack ranges from The Clash and The Velvet
Underground to newcomers like Nico for its inspira-
tion, and Mothersbaugh's classical compositions make
this a trip you'll want to take over and over again.
This is the third sopho-
more effort in our
reviews section this month,
and it avoids the infamous
slump as deftly as the first
two. Andy Turner's diverse
geographical roots come
through in much the same
way as they did on his first album, Co/d Water Music.
Turner grew up in Barrow-in-Furness—located directly
in the Middle of Nowhere, U.K.—and Hinterland
manages to effectively fuse the pine-scented serenity
of his homeland with the human bustle of his more
current urban habitats. Guest spots from Diamond D
and on Souls of Mischief are welcome, and Kate
Rogers returns for another dreamy vocal appearance.
Terry Gilliam's classic is now a part of the distin-
guished Criterion Collection DVD series, which is good
because we're fresh out of Quaaludes and this movie is an
ample substitute.
The plot involves a band of mischievous midgets pilfering
a map, which gives them access to holes in the space-time
continuum—-and, in turn, brings them one step closer to fame
and finance. Fortunately, a resourceful and evenhanded
laddie named Kevin is chosen to escort them on their
altogether ridiculous quest through various eras and epochs.
Time Bandits provides a dizzying dose of cinematic lunacy, and the entire tale—right
through to the very end—never relents in maintaining its grim, deranged sensibilities.
The DVD includes audio commentary by director Terry Gilliam, his co-writer (and
ex-Monty Python collaborator) Michael Palin, and actors John Cleese, David
Warner, and Craig Warnock. Make it yours (or convince someone else to do so).
XTRA
of the Box
So you've been watching television all night, and you
can't seem to find any shows in which extraterrestrial
porno/goth nurses prod their patients' asses with syringes,
drawing from them a cacophony of discomforted howls to
the tune of “Comin’ Round the Mountain." You also can't
Seem to track down any programs involving leather-clad
interplanetary mistresses dealing hallucinogenic drugs to
bug-eyed alien nerds, or live-action sitcoms about a family
of American mannequins moving to Japan and their ongoing
violent marital drama.
Now you can get all of this and a hot set of free stickers to boot, thanks to
Japan's infamous Pleasure Night collection, which is now available on delicious US
region 1 DVD. It's funny in that way that makes you look at the person next to you
every five minutes or so and say something to the effect of, “Huh?”
Peep http://www.vpn-tv.net/english/index.html for more.
Annoying cartoon waif Linn Minmei (one envisons her
creator as a sadist of the highest order) whines and
pules throughout the entirety of the epic Robotech: The
Macross Saga. Her "singing" will torment you in the same
manner as the fiery pitchforks of Hell jabbing across your
private bits. She will make you believe that suffering is
eternal, and that when you die, she'll be at your funeral,
wailing away like Yoko Ono. You'll watch the entire epic
animated series just to see if she suffers a horrible fate—and
rejoice when hero Rick Hunter makes his ultimate decision
regarding Minmei. Oh, and you'll thoroughly enjoy the whole six-DVD set from
Harmony Gold and ADV Films, which features a brave band of humans attempting
to defend the Earth against a race of giants, planes that transform into butt-stomp-
ing robots, firefights galore, intrigue, romance, and action of the two-fisted variety.
As transforming robot space operas go, this one may be the Queen Mum.
It might seem like we're riding the Terry Gilliam/
Criterion Collection dilz this month, but it's really just
our way of celebrating celluloid greatness. Brazil is a quite
indescribably twisted work of genius, and so is this three-
disc DVD gem. In no particular order: a "Production
Notebook" (writers illuminate the script's development
through three drafts and treatments, a production designer
displays his set designs, a costume designer explores the
couture of fashion, fantasy, and fascism); Terry Gilliam's origi-
nal dream sequence storyboards; composer Michael Kames
talks about his score; a comprehensive study of the special effects, with loads of
cool unused footage; What Is Brazil?, a rare on-set documentary; an original 1996
Criterion documentary discussing one of the most controversial releases in
Hollywood history; and, on top of all that, a 94-minute version of Brazil—rearranged
in the hope of making the film “commercial”—which, if nothing else, illustrates the
corruptive power of editing. This thing isn't cheap, but what, save for perhaps life, is?
So you know it's illogical and stubborn, but you've
been holding off on your purchase of The Usual
Suspects DVD because of its curious lack of "extras." The
predicament has actually been forcing you to question your
merciless dedication to consumerism; despite the fact that
Suspects is one of the most tightly scripted, skillfully
directed, and brilliantly acted films of the past 10 years—and
knowing full well that you would watch it at least a dozen
times a year until the day you die—the disc doesn't have any
deleted scenes, on-set documentaries, or original TV spots.
Well the Special Edition has finally arrived with all of this assorted goodness, and
it sports both fancy new packaging and a cheaper price tag to boot. So now you
can make amends with the gods of materialism and enjoy the towering cinematic
achievement that is this film. (Oh, and if you somehow haven't seen it, please stop
wasting your time with this silly magazine and go do so immediately. Thank you.)
Two brothers (ably played by Steve Zahn and Paul
Walker) driving cross-country play a joke on a trucker
with a CB. They stop to pick up love interest Venna (Leelee
Sobieski). The joke backfires. Bad things happen. Much
violence ensues. It would be easy to dismiss the creepy, toe-
curling Joy Ride as little more than a mainstream pleaser
with some in-vogue acting talent. That would be a mistake,
however, and as the characters in Joy Ride discover, the
simplest mistakes can have serious consequences. The
tension is a superstar here—kicking in over the opening titles
and building like it's never stopping. A taut but playful script and some noir camera
work of which Hitchcock would be proud all combine to deliver one of this year's
most surprising rides. And you get fries with this one—three alternate endings, as
well as numerous commentaries which make for a superb DVD package. If you've
got nothing to do tonight, we recommend you rent this sordid take on the classic
road/buddy movie gone terribly wrong. Very popcorn-friendly.
XBN 107 9
=
This issue...
Malfunctioning Xboxes,
strange UFO-style sight-
ings of Grand Theft Auto
and something about a
game character allegedly
called “Crash Bandicoot”
characterize the missives
that stuff our mailbox.
Sorry about the Tony
Hawk thing, by the way.
$ 108 XBN
אספחוצ
XBN@ziffdavis.com
Hi, | recently purchased issue #2 and
it's great. | appreciate the objective
way in which you report on all things
Xbox. | have found that objectivity is
hard to find in some of the “Official”
magazines. | saw in the issue that
Medal of Honor: Allied Assault was
due to be released in April on the
Xbox? Your magazine is the only one |
have seen this information in. It is not
even on the EA Web site. Could you
confirm or deny if this is in fact going
to happen, and if not, do you know
when it will? Keep up the good work.
jmg018
We called EA and their reps told us
that the game release date has
been changed from spring to fall.
They didn't say why, but our manag-
ing editor Greg Orlando suspects
that it might be because they want
to fit more Nazis in it so that he can
shoot them. But that's Greg.
One criticism: way too many typos in
your first and second issue. My wife is
a teacher of English as a second
language and English for literacy with
a degree in English literature. Are you
interested in a good proofreader?
Tony Pikos
No thnaks, Tony, we're dOing fine.
| just want to know what could
possibly be holding back СТАЗ from
coming to the Xbox? I'm sure
whatever kind of money Sony could
be offering them would be well
overcome by the money they would
make. When you have something
that good, why use its full potential?
Any other thoughts on why they are
holding out?
Ziggy
We have heard, through a source
close to the Grand Theft Auto
development team, that СТА 3 is a
PlayStation 2 exclusive and that
Sony has paid for it to stay that way.
Rockstar is not talking (as usual),
but there is some good news:
According to the same source, GTA
4 is in development for all systems,
including Xbox.
І bought myself an Xbox at the end of
November 2001. | doubt I've logged
more than 500 hours of play time on
this thing. In five short months, my
Xbox has gone from being the coolest
thing I could have spent $300 on, to
the bane of my existence. I'm starting
to wish Га just spent my money on
black tar heroin, I'd have ended up
healthier. Over the last two months,
my 'Box has gone from occasional
read errors (where the damn thing fails
to recognize that, yes, that IS a game
disc), and crashing once in a blue
moon, to nine times out of 10 NOT
reading my game disc, and crashing
every 10th time after about half an
hour. What's really sad is that I'm NOT
exaggerating; I've been keeping notes.
And of course, since it didn't turn into
the HellBeast until AFTER a month
after | bought it, getting it returned is
going to be a nightmare.
Insomnia Bob
Getting it returned should be a
breeze if you have a) registered it
with Microsoft and b) it’s within 90
days of purchase. If it’s within those
90 days, then Microsoft will fix it
free of charge. If it’s after those 90
days, that’s when it gets expensive.
There's a flat fee of $129.00 + tax for
any repairs outside of the warranty.
Ouch. You will also need proof of
“| contacted Microsoft's customer
service department and they
told me that | was SOL” Bryan Duke
purchase, if you haven't already
registered the system.
First off, | would like to say that you
guys have one great magazine. l'm
glad to see someone out there is out
to show both the good and the bad
about the Xbox. | was reading the
letters in your Spring Issue #2 and I
wanted to let people know that the
rumors about the Xbox failing are true!
І purchased my Xbox in December
and four days after the full warranty
expired the thing stopped reading any
game or audio disc including DVDs. 1
contacted Microsoft's customer
service department and they basic ally
told me that | was SOL and if | wanted
it fixed, it would cost me another
$275.00 Canadian to get it done.
Bryan Duke
My Xbox is f#cked up too. | had to
ship that big 955 box back to
Memphis to get repaired. The DVD
drive | think is going out already and I
bought it before Christmas. | didn't
buy the $50 warranty, so you know
they charged me an arm and a leg to
ship it out to get repaired when
basically it's their own damn fault it's
messed up anyway. | guarantee you if
it comes back still messed up, РИ be
raising some hell. My games just
wouldn't work. It said that my CDs
were unrecognizable and that it was
either dirty, scratched, or damaged.
So | tried it on my friend's Xbox and it
worked fine. So, are my CDs dirty,
scratched, or damaged? | don't think
So. Find some more people with the
same problem so we could all raise
hell together.
Seth Pontiff
My friend's friend already bought a
copy of Grand Theft Auto 3 for Xbox
from a store. | want to know how he
bought the game before IGN or
whoever had a chance to even see
screenshots of it. He bought it from a
video game store nearby, and | even
played it on his Xbox with my very
own hands.
Nemesis3975
And then the pizza sent out for you!
You mentioned that some people
returned their Xboxes saying that the
"games wouldn't play." Well, that's
just because they're impatient. When |
first got my Xbox, it said "Your Xbox
cannot read this disc, please make
Sure..." but after trying it a couple of
times it worked. All you have to do is
put in a different game and then put
Overheard in the offices of XBN
Automated unit #X4F5B Chip Boaz
addresses Evan's computer
problem at Ziff ^Brazil" Davis.
Managing editor Greg commenting
on the soulful sounds of the
Avalanches.
A very hyper Art Director Dave
Ziganay after viewing Silence of the
Lambs for the umpteenth time
Greg pines for a quick demise while
some deadly dull speaker rambles
on about the video game-themed
TV station G4
Mail of the moment
Skate Expectations
s Simon has the answer to Bill's problems
in the Far East
XBN 109 >
в”
Bl.
Rage". |
1
ў
oden stakes, fireballs or your surroundings
taking the “un” out o the undead Only on Xbo
‚ Xbox and the Xbox logos ё
and/or other countries ап
STAR WARS =
ДІ STRUT
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